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Good practice Imported

Kartu Prakerja — Indonesia's Pre-Employment Card

Indonesia · Jakarta · See the Indonesia profile · See the Jakarta profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 84% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Indonesia's reskilling scheme paid out over Rp41 trillion to ~19 million people since 2020. A rigorous lottery-based RCT (AEJ: Economic Policy, 2025) found no detectable impact on employment or consumption, and a 2020 scandal forced two officials to resign.

6.1 million
People enrolled, first year (2020)
13.35 trillion rupiah
Incentives disbursed, first year (2020)
~18.9-19 million people
Cumulative beneficiaries (by late 2024)
41.59 trillion rupiah (~US$2.66bn)
Cumulative incentives disbursed (through Sept 2024)
11M+ applicants across 20 lotteries
Applicants covered by RCT lotteries
no detectable impact
Employment/consumption impact found by RCT

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Manajemen Pelaksana Program Kartu Prakerja (Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Indonesia)
Period
2020–present
Keywords
Workforce reskilling, active labour market policy, digital training vouchers

Context

Kartu Prakerja was created by Presidential Regulation No. 36/2020, signed by President Joko Widodo in February 2020, and launched in March-April 2020 as part of Indonesia's COVID-19 response. It is governed by the Komite Cipta Kerja (chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs) and implemented by the Manajemen Pelaksana Program Kartu Prakerja (MPPKP), distributed by provincial quota across all 34 provinces and 514 districts/cities.

Activities

Eligible job seekers, laid-off workers and workers needing upskilling receive a training voucher redeemable through a marketplace of accredited digital training platforms, plus post-training cash incentives.

Results

The programme enrolled 6.1 million people and disbursed Rp13.35 trillion in its first year (2020), reaching roughly 18.9-19 million cumulative beneficiaries and Rp41.59 trillion (~US$2.66bn) in cumulative incentives disbursed by late 2024 — though annual budgets fell sharply thereafter (from Rp17.99 trillion in 2022 to about Rp5 trillion and a 1.15 million beneficiary target in 2024). The programme's flagship RCT (Hanna, Olken et al., 20 lotteries, 11M+ applicants) found no detectable impact on employment or consumption, contradicting an earlier unpublished 2021 'preliminary findings' readout that had claimed large gains.

Conclusions

A 2020 review by Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) found conflicts of interest at 5 of 8 partner training platforms appointed without standard procurement tender, and only 250 of 1,895 reviewed courses met basic online-training standards; two presidential special staffers resigned amid the controversy. Subsequent state audits (BPK) found hundreds of billions of rupiah in misdirected disbursements, though KPK, BPK and BPKP jointly declared the programme 'clean and clear' in 2021 after recommended fixes were implemented.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Komite Cipta Kerja (chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs), Manajemen Pelaksana Program Kartu Prakerja (MPPKP), Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs

Conditions for success

  • Provincial quota system distributing national reach across all 34 provinces and 514 districts/cities
  • Built-in experimental evaluation via random enrollment lotteries, enabling a credible impact assessment

Common failure modes

  • 2020 KPK review found procurement conflicts of interest at 5 of 8 appointed training platforms; only 250 of 1,895 reviewed courses met basic standards
  • Two presidential special staffers resigned in April 2020 amid the controversy
  • BPK audits found Rp390bn paid to blacklisted participants and Rp290bn to ineligible, above-income participants; a 2024 review found 54,856 ineligible participants and Rp10.46bn in unwarranted disbursements
  • The programme's own RCT found no detectable impact on employment or consumption despite large-scale disbursement

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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