(FEB NEWS) In order to help the Indonesian government resolve socio-economic problems such as unemployment, poverty, and inequality, the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) partnered with LAZ Al-Azhar East Java to improve the business capabilities of Rumah Gemilang Indonesia (RGI) alumni through the Kedaireka Matching Fund program. RGI itself is part of the Al-Azhar Peduli Ummat empowerment program that provides job preparation training to the underprivileged with a productive age of 17 to 30 years. Specifically, RGI Surabaya Campus offers two majors: Fashion Design for female students and Software Engineering for male students.
During the Kedaireka Matching Fund series, Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, a lecturer in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, and program head, stated that the goal of this activity is to establish a cooperative to accommodate the businesses of RGI Surabaya Campus students. Therefore, cooperative governance training is necessary to provide the students with a fundamental understanding of what a cooperative is and how it works.
"Hopefully, after this training, RGI students can be invited to establish a cooperative legal entity, planned to be called the Bentang Gemilang Syariah Cooperative, with a scale of East Java," Shochrul concluded. Thus, this cooperative can be a platform for students to start their businesses from ultra-micro scale to micro, small, medium, and even large. Undeniably, cooperatives are one of the business entities that can support the people's economy because they reach lower-class communities.
"Through this program, we hope to better integrate RGI alumni and encourage their businesses to grow faster. One way to do this is by forming cooperative-based joint ventures," he explained.
This Sharia cooperative governance training was conducted twice. The first day covered the mechanics of establishing a cooperative. The second day covered cooperative governance.
The first day of training, which discussed the mechanisms for establishing a cooperative, was held in the Mindrowo Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Airlangga with two speakers involved in the cooperative world on Wednesday, September 14, 2022. The training was conducted in a hybrid format. The number of offline participants allowed was limited to 80, while the number of online participants was unlimited. Participants included alumni of Rumah Gemilang Indonesia (RGI), students from Airlangga University and abroad, and the general public.
The cooperative establishment mechanism training activity began at 08.00 WIB after all participants had registered. The event began with a prayer together and continued with singing the Indonesian national anthem, led by the Master of Ceremony (MC), Mrs. Widya Tanti. After the opening ceremony was over, the event continued with remarks. The first remarks should have been delivered by Mr. Rossanto Dwi Handoyo, SE., M.Si., Ph.D, as Head of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga , were taken over by Mrs. Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, SE, M.Ec. The second remarks were from the Chairman of LAZ Al-Azhar East Java by Mr. Aditya Kusuma, ST, M.SEI.
Prior to the presentation session, the activity began with a pre-test. In this pre-test, participants were given five questions about cooperatives. This pre-test was administered to assess their level of knowledge regarding cooperatives. The average score for participants in this pre-test was 70/100. The results of this pre-test indicate that some participants already had at least some knowledge about cooperatives.
After conducting the pre-test, the training continued with the presentation of material by the first speaker, Mr. Ahmad Hudaifah, SE, M.Ec. He delivered two materials. The first material contained the basic concepts of microfinance institutions, BMT, Cooperatives as BMT business entities, how to start a BMT establishment. Then, the second material contained BMT products. The material presented by Mr. Ahmad Hudaifah emphasized the basics of sharia cooperatives. After the presentation of materials 1 and 2, the event continued with a question and answer session. In this session, there were five participants who asked questions.
Figure 1. Delivery of Materials 1 and 2, Wednesday (14/9/2022)
The activity then continued with the delivery of the 3rd and 4th materials. The 3rd material contained the capital strengthening strategy of Baitul Maal wa Tamwil (BMT) and the 4th material contained the relationship between Baitul Maal and Baitul Tanwil. Both materials were delivered by Salman Abdurrubi Perwiragama, Lc. After the presentation of the materials was completed, participants were given time to ask several questions related to the material. Even though it was almost the end of the event, the participants still showed their enthusiasm for this event. This was shown by the six participants who asked questions related to materials 3 and 4.
Figure 2. Delivery of Materials 3 and 4, Wednesday (14/9/2022)
The cooperative establishment mechanism training activity lasted until 7:30 PM WIB. Overall, the cooperative establishment mechanism training held at the Mindrowo Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga was greeted with enthusiasm and enthusiasm from the participants. Both offline and online participants were actively involved in this series of activities. Several participants also asked questions to the resource person. The participants who attended the Mindrowo Hall were not only from Surabaya, some came from Kediri, Mojokerto, and other cities. This shows that interest in sharia cooperatives is quite high. Mrs. Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, SE, M.Ec. as the head of the committee hopes that the participants will remain enthusiastic in participating in this series of cooperative training activities and can implement them directly in the community.
"Starting with this cooperative establishment mechanism training activity, we hope that participants will remain enthusiastic about participating in this series of cooperative training activities and can implement them directly in the community," he said.