Operations and Strategic Management Research Group (RG), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) hosted a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) for MSME Assistance at Mangesthi Boutique Hotel Solo, Wednesday 26 July 2023. The event was attended by the Executive Director of KADIN Surakarta, MSME partners of KADIN, RG Team, and FEB UNS students.

Chairman of the Operations Management RG, Prof. Wisnu Untoro, MS., said that this FGD was the final series of MSMEs assistance in collaboration with KADIN Surakarta by involving internship students from FEB.

Prof. Wisnu expressed his gratitude to KADIN Surakarta for collaborating with Operations Management RG FEB UNS, hoping that this kind of collaboration can go on sustainably. Based on this collaboration, students and MSMEs get many benefits.

“We hope that after this internship, students can share the experience with their colleagues that this activity is useful and also students can be proud to contribute to certain MSMEs,” he said.

Executive Director of KADIN Surakarta, M. David R. Wijaya, S.E., also welcomed Prof. Wisnu’s remarks on the sustainability of this collaboration.

Synergy and collaboration between the business world, academics, and city governments, especially in the development of MSMEs and also developing human resources, thus better preparing them for the future to face global competition.

“With this cooperation, there are many things that can be obtained from students. They can learn a lot about applied business activities through MSMEs. On the other hand, we hope that MSME can also be helped by the presence of internship students. Today’s era, generation Z understands more about the digital world, knows more about how online marketing, about marketplaces, social media, and so on,” he explained.

It is said that this internship at KADIN is not solely to work at the KADIN office, but encourages how these students get knowledge from MSMEs, allowing them to experience applied business in the MSME sector. Students have received many theories, financial management, and other knowledge on campus, thus, they need to hone their skills by looking at business actors.

Why choose MSMEs as a place for internship activity? According to him, MSMEs have a lot of knowledge, ranging from how they build their businesses, how to prepare their human resources, how to record the cash receipt and disbursement, how to manage their production, marketing the product to stay exist to this day and survive, all of these are often done by the business owner.

After the opening remark, the next activity was the material presentation regarding community service from the RG team, by Drs. Yong Dirgiatmo, M.Sc., Ph.D., and Dr. Hidajat Hendarsjah, MM., who conveyed about the development of MSME products.

The agenda went on with an FGD on the Internship Program for MSME Mentoring, which included the presentation of the internship implementation report and discussion. The agenda was concluded with the submission of the assessment form as well as the withdrawal of intern students.