Scholarships for Indonesian Tourism

In cooperation with 27 Bali travel and cargo agencies in Bali, Singapore International Airlines have again granted much needed scholarship to deserving students attending the Island's tourism and arts academy.

At the same time SIA handed over US$13,000 to the Provincial Government of Bali to support tourism recovery efforts the Bali Discovery reports.

According to Desmond Lim, Bali Manager for SIA: "Tourism as a strategic sector of the economy producing foreign exchange can only be developed by profession organizations staffed by professionals. One goal of Singapore Airlines is to support the advancement of Indonesian manpower in their efforts to become professional workers in the tourism industry."

To this end, SIA and its travel and cargo agents launched its "Human Resources Development Program" in May 2000. This program presents scholarships to financially needy Balinese students who have demonstrated academic excellence to pursue educations in tourism, the travel industry and travel logistics at the School of Tourism Studies (STP-Bali) and the National Polytechnic of Bali. Scholarships are also given to students attending the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI).

The program is supported by yearly contributions from SIA's network of Bali passenger and cargo agents with matching funds contributed by SIA. Beneficiaries of the Human Resources Development Program are given training opportunities with SIA and its network of agents with many past graduates now working in the travel industry.

For six years from 2000 through 2006, scholarships have been granted with a value of Rp. 80 million. Since the program's inception 102 students have received assistance with 16 already actively working in their selected fields. In the latest round of scholarship awards, 12 students - 4 from the STP-Bali, 4 from the Polytechnic and 4 from ISI are all slated to receive support under the program. Each of the scholarship winners ranked in the top ten of their respective classes and were awarded between Rp. 2.5 million and Rp.1.25 million.

"Through participation in this program" according to SIA’s Lim, "those of us working in the tourism and cargo industry are setting aside a portion of our profits for the people of Bali."

SIA and its network of cargo and travel agents support similar programs in Jakarta, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Solo, Manado and Bandung

SIA is also a regular sponsor of TIME - an annual national travel mart for the Indonesian tourism industry.