IHRAM.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The rapidly changing times have become a challenge for students to adapt. What are the skills that students need to have to face the future?

Journalist Republic Andrian Saputra interviewed the Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Boarding School Nursing Assistants (P2I), who is also the head of Al-Ikhlash Kuningan Modern Islamic Boarding School, KH M Tata Taufik.

Here is an exerpt.

What are the challenges for students in the future?

First, to fortify oneself from the negative influence of the problems that arise in the digital age.

We are all part of an already global society, connected to each other. It’s a challenge in the future where humans know each other without facing each other.

It is also a problem in the life of the 21st century, the model of community life in the digital age.

Second, is related to the duties of the santri in social life. We know that the santri are those who live deeply in the teachings of Islam (tafaqquh fiddin). In the future, they can effectively exercise their functions and roles as givers of warning, what information should and should not not be made for the community.

With an increasingly digitized society, students need to be more creative in preaching in the community by expanding their network and increasing khidmah.

What skills do you need to meet these challenges?

The skills needed to face these challenges are of course when we face the digital age, so this ability is related to digitization. Not only do programs that relate to the ease of providing knowledge information, such as providing online consultation, but it still needs to be done without having to leave core skills, such as verbal communication or communication mass from public speaking, then also with the ability to write, to communicate messages in writing so that they are more easily disseminated to a large number of people.

It is enough to see in which field the students want to evolve, what they want to follow. Of course, with a note these skills can be developed by each individual. I am sure that students can and are happy to learn on their own, to develop themselves. However, he still has to have the basics first, namely the Islamic sciences. It has to be strong first and then the other skills become technical skills that are possessed and needed in the context of earning a living.

If you need digital, please study, but still, it must have tafaqquh fiddin framework. First of all, it is a soft skill that must be possessed by students first.

What should the government and thepestrens do to increase the capacity of the santri?

The BLK (Job Training Center) has professional training programs, which are very good. And now it’s the multimedia program of Canada and so on. That’s all, if it’s well socialized in the santri, set up in good collaboration with the Poidsren, it’s very good. For example, skills are related to computer science, programming, vocational training which are multimedia in nature. However, traditional skills, such as woodworking, welding, are still needed and this is actually a government program, there is no need to create new ones, just empower the the existing programs as much as possible and to implement them is extraordinary.

If the heavyweight itself, must be adaptive. That is, we are open to the things that we need to improve, that we need to take and improve. And, I see the ponderren now making a lot of preparations for santri’s ability in various dimensions, both professional and non-professional. What is most important is mental preparation. Mental strength has been prepared by the poisren for the students