English Language Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (PBI UMY) continues to encourage the entire academic community to move towards a better and visionary direction. Preparations from the student and lecturer continue to be sought so that PBI UMY graduates and PBI UMY lecturers can become pilots of qualified English language education study programs in Indonesia. This is evidenced by two PBI UMY lecturers who were elected to become assessors at the UMY Professional Certification Institute (LSP) which is under the auspices of the National Professional Certification Agency of the Republic of Indonesia.
They are Arifah Mardiningrum, M.A and Gendroyono, M.Pd. The two PBI UMY lecturers were qualified and passed to become assessors for professional certification in the Executive Administrative Assistant (EAA) scheme. Prior to that, an Executive Administrative Assistant is an employee who provides high level administrative support to executives in the workplace, such as taking calls, scheduling meetings, managing executive requests, and other office duties. They may also oversee office functions and supervise lower-level office employees.
During the interview session, Arifah Mardiningrum said that in the certification test process, the participants would be tested for six abilities to pass to become an EAA. The six abilities tested include Intermediate Communication Strategy, Writing Summaries and Report, Post Intermediate Business Correspondence, Negotiation Skills, Giving a Presentation and Public Relations Skills. Furthermore, Arifah added that later the graduate profile of the EAA certification will be able to work in companies equivalent to BUMN and bonafide companies.
Talking about the process of becoming an assessor, the journey of the two PBI UMY lecturers was not easy. Before they were officially declared to be an assessor on September 27, 2022, they had to go through several stages. The stages are workshops, material debriefing, instrument making, and final tests as an assessor. Furthermore, this EAA scheme is a scheme directly owned by PBI UMY. So, later if there are PBI UMY students who are interested in becoming an EAA, they can register themselves. In total, there are four lecturers who are assessors for this program who are divided into PBI UMY 2 and UMY International Relations 2 people.
Arifah Mardiningrum hopes that the certification program under the EAA scheme will run smoothly in 2023. She said that preparations for this certification are still being boosted to create a proper certification process and qualified graduates. In addition, she also hopes that all assessors, especially herself, can become a neutral assessor and not discriminate between certification participants from which graduates and how their backgrounds are. Amazing PBI UMY!