Opening the Future
Entrusted by businessman Ciputra in 2006 to lead the Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center has brought unimaginable experience for Antonius Tanan, 59. He is tasked with designing entrepreneurship pedagogy for educators to eventually reach street children, commercial sex workers and migrant workers.
Entrusted by businessman Ciputra in 2006 to lead the Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center has brought unimaginable experience for Antonius Tanan, 59. He is tasked with designing entrepreneurship pedagogy for educators to eventually reach street children, commercial sex workers and migrant workers.
Antonius wholeheartedly believes, as Ciputra does, that entrepreneurship education could provide a solution to poverty and unemployment in Indonesia. Entrepreneurship education is not just about commerce or business, and must be based on creativity and innovation so that entrepreneurs can turn garbage into gold.
Concerns over the high rate of unemployment among youths and educated people make it important to introduce entrepreneurship as a field of education. A generation of entrepreneurs has developed under the 3L formula, namely lahir (birth), lingkungan (environment) and latihan (practice). People born to a family of businessmen, such as Ciputra, experience business since birth and learn entrepreneurship from their families. They then learn from their immediate environment, which inspires entrepreneurship. Finally, entrepreneurship is learned through practice, because most Indonesians are not born and raised in an entrepreneurial environment.
Antonius, who has been appointed the president of the Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center/University of Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center (CEC/UCEC), diligently sought breakthroughs and innovation in entrepreneur education. In education, of course, the Ciputra Group’s schools have become models of entrepreneurship education that introduces a curriculum at an early age. All is taught in a learning environment that encourages creativity and innovation and in ways that offer direct and reflective experiences (experiential learning).
Antonius has collaborated with the Kauffman Foundation, an international institution that develops entrepreneurship education. The spirit of entrepreneurship education continues to spread through efforts like the 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) that Indonesia hosted. The GEW is held in 100 countries to introduce young people all over the world to entrepreneurship.
For Antonius, managing the development of entrepreneurship education is not just about being a leader. He has discovered his personal mission to contribute to creating a new future for those inspired by the UCEC’s entrepreneurship education.
Touched
Antonius recalled a moment that touched his heart: watching a tearful Ciputra explain his determination to develop a generation of Indonesian entrepreneurs during a Kompas interview in October 2007at his office in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
"I was suddenly called upon by Pak Ci, \'Antonius, you must train the most despicable people in Indonesia.\' For me, that was a vague order. I did not dare to answer immediately. I just said I wanted to practice first because I had never done this before," he said.
Antonius then interpreted the order to mean training those people who were at risk or disadvantaged. He started by training 10 children in Surabaya, but it was not easy, as it was difficult to convey even the most basic idea to them.
Antonius also attended the June 2019 graduation of Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong who had taken entrepreneurship classes. He and the UCEC had supported the Intelligent Migrant Workers (BMC) community, which holds entrepreneurship classes for Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong.
Antonius directly involved in training and interacting with participants. After trying the program with street children, he followed up with entrepreneurship education for commercial sex workers (CSWs). The initiative was driven by the Surabaya municipal administration’s policy to close down the Dolly brothel and to relocate the brothel’s residents to Dupak. The relocation affected 28 former prostitutes, pimps and members of the nearby community, who all joined the 2012 Women of Hope program.
"Honestly, it feels odd standing in front of sex workers. However, I must deliver entrepreneurship education to change their future. At Dupak, their costs are lower than at the Dolly. We came and approached them with respect," said Antonius.
The training program involves hands-on practices that they can understand. They are challenged to build their dreams, and not with words. Each former sex worker was given Rp 50,000 and then taken to a famous shop that sells professional culinary equipment. Their assignment was to make a purchase and explain why they chose that equipment.
"When asked why they bought the tool, they were all able to answer immediately. For example, they wanted to start a coffee kiosk or something [like that]. At first, it was difficult to discuss their dreams with them," said Antonius.
After four years, he was touched when a former sex worker who had taken part in the training sent him photographs of her business.
He said there was no single approach to entrepreneurship training, as the issues were diverse. "That is the challenge for educators. In entrepreneurship education, it is not what to teach, but how to teach. Educators must think. That is pedagogy," said Antonius, who has a doctorate in pedagogy.
For the last eight years, Antonius and the UCEC have provided training for Indonesian migrant workers in Singapore and Hong Kong to fulfill the mission to inspire at-risk communities to move forward through entrepreneurship education. Antonius applied his bachelor’s in online learning by utilizing social media to provide training. The CEC School of Life Facebook group and the WhatsApp group help migrant workers obtain the capital they need to start their own businesses after repatriating.
In mid-June, Antonius visited Hong Kong to train migrant workers and to attend their graduation from the entrepreneurship course. He was amazed at the number of migrant workers that the UCEC had influenced, who then independently developed entrepreneurship education for their fellow migrant workers in Hong Kong.
"As a teacher, I can\'t neglect students I meet who are passionate and thirsty for knowledge. There is no other choice but to share and train [them] as best as you can," said Antonius.
He was touched by the lives of the migrant workers. "There is compassion because I know that none of them wants to work so far away from their families. However, it is also amazing that they wanted to study amid all their difficulties. I feel honored to be able to inspire and guide them in their studies," he said.
At the end of 2018, he decided to take early retirement, even though he was a senior director of the Ciputra Group. He wanted to focus more on developing research and innovation in education, especially pedagogy in entrepreneurship education.
Antonius Tanan
Born: Kuningan, 9 April 1960
Wife: Jeni Putri Tanan
Children: Johan Abdiel Tanan (22), Iona Dorothy Putri Tanan (19)
Occupation: Executive, Ciputra Education Foundation; lecturer at Ciputra University; Employee, Ciputra Group (1987-2018; 31 years)
Education: Doctorate in distance learning, Athabasca University, Canada (2017); Master in special education, University of Connecticut, US (2010); Master in urban development, University College London (UCL), UK (1996); Master in management, Prasetiya Mulya Business School, Jakarta (1987); Bachelor in civil engineering, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung (1984)