(FEB NEWS) In order to help the Indonesian government solve socio-economic problems such as unemployment, poverty and inequality, the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) is partnering with LAZ Al-Azhar East Java to improve the business capabilities of Rumah Gemilang Indonesia (RGI) alumni through Kedaireka Matching Fund program. RGI itself is part of the Al-Azhar Cares Ummat empowerment program which provides job preparation training to poor people of productive age, namely 17 to 30 years. Specifically, RGI Surabaya Campus provides two majors, namely Fashion Design for female students and Software Engineering for male students.
In this Kedaireka Matching Fund series, Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, lecturer at the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga , and head of the program stated that the target of this activity was the formation of a cooperative that accommodates the businesses of the RGI Surabaya Campus students. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out cooperative governance training so that students can understand fundamentally what a cooperative is and how it works.
"The hope is that after this training, RGI students can be invited to establish a cooperative legal entity which is planned to be called the Bentang Gemilang Syariah Cooperative on an East Java scale," said Shochrul. In this way, this cooperative can become a forum for students to start their business from an ultra-micro scale to move up to micro, small, medium or even large. It cannot be denied that cooperatives are one of the business entities that can support the people's economy because they reach the lower classes of society.
"Through this program, it is hoped that RGI alumni can be more integrated and encouraged in their businesses so that they can develop more quickly. "One way that can be done is by forming a cooperative-based joint venture," he explained.
Sharia cooperative governance training was carried out twice. The first day's training activities were related to the mechanisms for establishing cooperatives. Meanwhile, the second day's training activities were related to cooperative governance.
The first day of training which discussed the mechanisms for establishing cooperatives was held in the Mindrowo Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Airlangga by inviting two resource persons who are involved in the world of cooperatives, Wednesday (14/9/2022). The implementation of training on cooperative establishment mechanisms was carried out in a hybrid manner. The number of offline participants allowed to attend the event is only limited to 80 participants, while the number of online participants is not limited. The training participants consisted of Rumah Gemilang Indonesia (RGI) alumni, Unair students and foreign students, and the general public.
The training activity on the mechanism for establishing a cooperative started at 08.00 WIB after all participants had registered. The event began with praying together and continued with singing the song Indonesia Raya which was guided by the Master of Ceremony (MC), namely Mrs. Widya Tanti. After the opening ceremony was finished, the event continued with remarks. The first speech should be given by Mr. Rossanto Dwi Handoyo, SE., M.Si., Ph.D, as Head of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga , taken over by Mrs. Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, SE, M.Ec. The second speech was from the Chair of LAZ Al-Azhar East Java by Mr Aditya Kusuma, ST, M.SEI.
Before the material delivery session, this activity begins with a pre-test. In this pre-test session, participants were given five questions about cooperatives. This pre-test was given to see the level of participants' knowledge regarding cooperatives. The average participant score in this pre-test was 70/100. From the results of the pre-test, it can be concluded that some participants already have at least some knowledge regarding cooperatives.
After carrying out the pre-test, the training activity continued with the delivery of material by the first resource person, namely Mr. Ahmad Hudaifah, SE, M.Ec. He delivered two materials. The first material contains the basic concepts of microfinance institutions, BMT, cooperatives as BMT business entities, how to start establishing a BMT. Then, the second material contains BMT products. The material presented by Mr. Ahmad Hudaifah emphasized more on the basics of sharia cooperatives. After delivering material 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 material. The third material contains strategies for strengthening Baitul Maal wa Tamwil (BMT) capital and the fourth material contains the relationship between Baitul Maal and Baitul Tanwil. Both materials were delivered by Salman Abdurrubi Perwiragama, Lc. After the presentation of the material is complete, participants are given time to ask several questions related to the material. Even though it was almost at 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)
This training activity on the mechanism for establishing a cooperative lasted until 19.30 WIB. Overall, the training on the mechanism for establishing cooperatives which was held in the Mindrowo Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Airlangga was welcomed with enthusiasm and enthusiasm from the participants. Participants both offline and online are actively involved in this series of activities. Several participants also asked questions to the resource person. The participants who attended the Mindrowo Hall did not only come from Surabaya, some came from Kediri, Mojokerto and other cities. This shows that interest or attraction regarding sharia cooperatives is quite high. Mrs. Shochrul Rohmatul Ajija, SE, M.Ec. as chief executive hopes that participants will remain enthusiastic in taking part in this series of cooperative training activities and can implement them directly in the community.
"Starting from this training activity on establishment mechanisms, it is hoped that participants will also remain enthusiastic about taking part in this series of cooperative training activities and that they can be implemented directly in the community," he said.
