Learning spirit encourages a person with disability to break the barrier and start a business

A training to use WordPress platform for E-commerce organised by Clevio Coder Camp and Axioo Indonesia provides an opportunity for Aldi Balkar, a person with disability from Karawang regency, West Java, to become an entrepreneur in web development business.

Aldi, 25 years old, has never lost his excitement to learn new things even after completing his Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology at the Karawang Buana Perjuangan University in 2019. Though physically disabled, Aldi had never sees his disability as a barrier to chase his dreams and career.

This spirit to learn flared when Aldi heard about the web development training from the Karawang branch of the Indonesia Association of People with Disability (PPDI). During the training – that was held at PT Tera Data Indonusa (Axioo Indonesia) office in Cakung, East Jakarta on 25-26 September 2021, trainers from Clevio shared basic knowledge regarding the methods to build e-commerce websites using WordPress platform.

This training was a part of the Employment and Livelihood project that is jointly managed by four United Nations (UN) agencies in Indonesia, including ILO, and funded by the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Multi-Partner Trust Fund (UN MPTF). For two days, participants were involved in a series of trainings to use WordPress and its plugins to support website’s performance as well as the basics of online businesses.

“We hope that this training can provide opportunities for people with disabilities and improve their confidence to start or develop their business supported by WordPress-based websites,” said Navitri Putri Guillaume, ILO's National Project Officer for the Employment and Livelihood project.

Aldi admitted that he had never joined a training for WordPress-based web development. He said that the Clevio training was very interesting. Aldi also appreciated that Clevio had anticipated the barriers that might be faced by people with disabilities in learning how to build an e-commerce website.

“The facilities during the training were very comprehensive. Clevio also provided sign language interpreters to aid participants during the training. In addition to that, the materials were very concise and easy to understand,” said Aldi, who is also working part time as a web developer.

Besides web development, the participants were also introduced to search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase their site’s visibility. The participants were also required to participate in a personal branding training as a foundation and prerequisite to join the website development training.

Aldi said that the personal branding training and the one-month Traineeship program following the training have helped enhancing his confidence. During the Traineeship program, he was given an online traineeship opportunity at Dinamika Multi Craft, a small furniture business, to build their web shop.

According to Aldi, the trainings and traineeship experience increased his confidence on his web development skills. He also said that he did not feel hesitant anymore to accept project offers. This was evident when he bravely offered his service and managed to get two paid projects in less than one week after the training ended. The projects are PPDI Karawang web development and a company profile for Kitabilitas/Kitaoneus that he received from a fellow training participant.

“I’m really delighted that this training yielded positive results for me. Not only financial gains, but I also acquired amazing opportunity to interact with other participants with different disabilities,” said Aldi, who is now planning to engage other people with disabilities to jointly open a web development business.