Day 7 - Out and about in Solo city

Scooters Scooters everywhere - The moped or scooter is the vehicle of choice in Indonesia. They swarm like ants along the road. It's chaotic and hard to tell who has right of way, but everyone seems to get to where they need to go. My colleague Tracy said it feels like you're in a game of Super Mario - Denis would love it! Click on the link to see a video of what I mean.

Anyway a bit of a blog backlog due to our assignments becoming very busy so here's a catch up on a busy day 7.

We were given a scope of work (SOW) document by Solo Technopark before we came to Indonesia so our goal for the first week is to gain an understanding of the running of their business and then propose any modifications we felt were needed to the scope. Once we get an agreed SOW in place then it's time to go and deliver on the plan. We met management of Solo Technopark on Day 6 so today we went out to meet other stakeholders.

First up is ATMI  - a company that produces products commercially but is co-located with both a vocational high school (SMK) and a polytechnic. This is a clever concept in that students get to learn in a real world production environment. We met with politeknik director Bapak Agus who introduced us to his vice director Bapak Francis Suryadi to bring us on a tour of the campus. We also met the head of research Bapak Agung who took this photo.

ATMI collaborates with Solo Technopark in two ways -  their polytechnic graduates become teachers in STP,  and also STP students go to ATMI to do their internships - and many go on to be employed there.

In the picture above are the younger students (typcially aged 15) who must start from first principles with hand files and hacksaws (difficult work in the humid heat). I wonder if Ronan would survive a day doing this!
The hammers on the left are one of the end products and these are sold commercially.
No doubt these boys have a tough life ahead of them but gaining a marketable skill will certainly be an advantage.
On our tour of the facility we spoke to some of the STP students and alumnis to get their feedback on their time spent at STP, how well equipped for work they felt on graduating and whether they thought their courses could be improved in anyway.

Students training on a lathe

Angga Bagus (19) is an STP student of Mechanical Manufacturing, doing his three month internship at ATMI. He took a break from his work to have a chat with us about his studies at STP

Angga chose STP because he felt it would give him the technical skills that would make it easier to find a job and is happy with the level of training he received.

Hanung is an alumni of STP having graduated in 2008. He found full time employment at ATMI and and is one of the senior tradesmen there.
While happy with the technical training he received at STP he felt that he would have benefited if they also included english classes.

A rambutan tree growing on the ATMI campus. We tried some of the ripe fruits - delicious.

The final Technopark alumni we spoke to was Galang who graduated 7 years ago and has also found fulltime employment at ATMI. He enrolled with STP at 17 and spent 9 months studying manufacturing mechanics. Galang came through the regular high school route rather than vocational school and as a result would have had less hands on experience when entering STP.
He spoke some english and also said that he would have liked if english classes were part of the STP curriculum.

An example of finished product - hospital beds.

Another example - a mould for making plactic spoons.

Nothing like touring metal workshops to give you an appetite so after a wrap up meeting with the vice director Francis Suryadi and head of research Bapak Agung we headed for a nearby muslim style restuarant.

I ordered a type of bird called Malond and was a bit taken aback when it arrived with it's head still attached. That said it was very tasty. Also we ate with no cutlery - not unusual in this part of the world. There were sinks around the restuarant to wash your hands after eating.

After lunch we went to meet Dimitri Rupyando an entrepreneur in the Solo Technopark incubation program. Rupi has invented a clever way of adjusting a scooter so that it works for people with disabilities in their legs.

He can either sell the accessibility kit seperately or install it for customers. Its proving popular and his youtube videos have attracted interest from Malaysia and Vietnam. STP are supporting him in acquiring the skills needed to run an expanding business. They are also giving his mechanics some additional training.

With his current workshop he can produce 7 kits a month but he needs to expand that capacity to 30 per month.
He is looking for an investor to help him expand the business.
One of the things STP have asked us to look at are ways to help entrepreneurs raise finance as they struggle with that.