Improve Professionalism, Ministry of Social Affairs Will Require PSM to Follow Training

JAKARTA (February 17, 2020) - The government needs the participation of community groups who voluntarily participate in overcoming social problems called Community Social Workers (PSM). The Ministry of Social Affairs needs to hone the professionalism of PSM, to improve the quality of their service to the community.

"The capacity of PSM needs to be continuously improved, in line with the increasing complexity of the problem, especially with the rapid advancement of Technology and Information in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. So even though it is based on volunteerism, PSM must also be professional," said Minister of Social Affairs Juliari P. Batubara, in his direction read by Director General of Social Empowerment Pepen Nazaruddin at the Opening of PSM Technical Guidance in Jakarta, Monday (17/02/2020).

The Minister stated, although PSM is based on volunteerism, it does not mean that the service delivery is not professional. "For this reason, it is the duty of the Ministry of Social Affairs to seek capacity building for PSM, one of which is with this Technical Guidance," said Juliari.

With a volunteer base, people with various educational backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, ethnicity, religion, and so on, can become PSMs. "This can certainly be a support in providing services to the community," said Juliari.

But of course, it still has to be equipped with basic knowledge and skills about the implementation of social welfare through training or technical guidance. "Thus, it is expected to help build the minimum competency standards that must be owned by every PSM," said Juliari.

In the future, the Ministry of Social Affairs plans, everyone who wants to become a PSM is required to take technical guidance so that they can become qualified social welfare service human resources. "Therefore, the government both at the central and regional levels must strive so that PSMs throughout Indonesia are given technical guidance and skills ranging from basic and advanced levels to special levels," said Juliari.

The demands of increasingly complex problems demand the readiness of social welfare service human resources which are also increasingly diverse. "PSM must be able to uphold its existence by improving the quality of its competence that distinguishes it from other social welfare human resources," Juliari added.

Technical Guidance helps PSM understand its identity what programs are available, what it should do, and so on. So that the work of PSM becomes effective, efficient, and professional. "This is not only a measure of the success of PSM as an individual or IPSM as an organizational forum as a partner of the Ministry of Social Affairs in providing social services," said the Minister.

Director General of Social Empowerment Pepen Nazaruddin said that the technical guidance was attended by 500 people consisting of 225 people from Bekasi City, 225 people from Bekasi Regency, and 25 people from the Central Association of Community Social Workers (IPSM).

"In the two-day Technical Guidance, participants were given various general knowledge about social life and Social Volunteerism," said Pepen. In addition, the participants were also given the material on the basic concepts of PSM, national insight, and basic aspects of PSM skills.

"With this Technical Guidance, it is expected that PSM participation in the implementation of social welfare will increase. The awareness of duties and responsibilities as well as the capacity of PSMs also increases," said Pepen.

Public Relations Bureau

Ministry of Social Affairs RI