On February 9-10, 2021, at the Best Western Hotel Jakarta, BKKBN held a workshop to introduce several scholarship programs abroad that are available for staff members of BKKBN’s national office. To be able to participate in the workshop, the participants had undertaken IELTS on February 3, 2021 and had expressed their interest to pursue their master’s or doctoral studies abroad. Several former scholarship recipients were invited to the workshop as resource persons, sharing their experience of studying in foreign countries. The resource persons represented diverse scholarship programs, such as the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), Australian Award Scholarship, Chevening Scholarship, Fullbright Scholarship, KOICA Scholarship, Nuffic Neso Scholarship, Eiffel Scholarship, and DAAD Scholarship.
The workshop observed the Regulation of BKKBN Chairperson Number 21 of 2007 on Study Assignment and Study Permission for Civil Servants of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN). The regulation mandates the Center of International Training and Collaboration of BKKBN to facilitate professional development opportunities for competent and competitive staff members, by opening access to master’s and doctoral studies abroad. To that end, the Center is also responsible to provide credible and comprehensive information on overseas scholarships.
The workshop was organized despite the Covid-19 pandemic and was held via a virtual platform to navigate the health challenge. The platform allowed employees from central and provincial offices to participate. Throughout the workshop, participants had the chance to learn as much as they could about available scholarship programs and requirements. They also received words of encouragement to compete as scholarship candidates and to augment their professional capacity by pursuing a higher education in overseas universities.