BPJPH Empowers 20,000 Assistants with Halal Product Certification Training

From 9 to 11 February, the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Halal Product Assurance Agency (BPJPH) trained more than 20,000 Islamic religious assistants in facilitating halal product certification.

“This training is taking place simultaneously and in large numbers. This is one of our breakthroughs to accelerate our goal of achieving one million free halal certifications (by 2023),” BPJPH head Aqil Irham said in a statement on Saturday.

Irham expects that once the training is completed, the assistants, in collaboration with the Halal Product Assistance Institute and the BPJPH, will be able to immediately assist business operators interested in getting their halal products certified.

According to the BPJPH, the Ministry of Religious Affairs will continue to strive to improve halal product assurance services in the future, including the implementation of more coaching activities for prospective halal product certification assistants.

“This training is a pilot project,” says the trainer. “We hope it will prove to be an effective and efficient strategy for producing (quality) assistants for the halal product (certification) process,” he said.

Dzikro, the head of BPJPH’s Centre for Development and Monitoring, explained that this training for halal product certification assistants combined three online learning methods.

“We use Zoom meetings, YouTube live streaming and the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) through the SiHALAL (Halal Information System) app,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the training material was delivered through a combination of lectures, self-study, and mentoring. In addition, the BPJPH has prepared tutorial videos that participants can watch over and over again. Dzikro explained that the training participants received information on government policies and regulations on halal product assurance, Islamic Shariah provisions on halal products, the Halal Product Assurance System (SJPH) manuals, halal product types, the Indonesian Standard Industrial Classification (KBLI), and assistance with documentation and digitization.

“We also conduct pre- and post-tests to see if the participants understand the training material,” he added.

To become the world’s leading halal food and beverage producer, the government plans to issue halal certificates for 10 million products by 2024.

The BPJPH reported that 864,014 products will be halal-certified between 2019 and 2022.