Andi Ayu Rahayu, 41 years old, skillfully mixed Siantar robusta coffee with liquid palm sugar without milk. It is one of the most favorite coffee beverages in “Historic Coffee House” that she owns and manages with her business partner in South Jakarta since last January. “I am used to this online business, and as it turns out, it is quite manageable,” said Ayu.

Meanwhile in Bekasi, West Java, Difa Stefanie, 33 years old, looked very busy in improving a phone-app that would boost children’s reading interest called “Jelajah Negeri”. “Through this app, it is expected that parents could also witness their children’s reading progress,” Ayu said.

Ayu and Difa are two alumni of ILO training programme on creating online shop applications organized in collaboration with Clevio Coder Camp between May and August in which 624 people participated in the training. They were also two of 10 participants selected to participate in advance business mentoring programme for two months in September and October to strengthen their online businesses.

This training and business mentoring programme are a part of ILO’s Women in STEM Project aims to help women in obtaining quality jobs and promote their careers’ advancement especially in information technology.

Starting a customer-friendly online business

Ayu has worked in food and beverages industry for 15 years prior to opening up her coffee shop business. However, restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic have disturbed the continuity of her coffee shop, which started to gain popularity among international tourists and runners’ community.

Without any hesitation she enrolled herself to participate in the 5th batch of online shop application training in July. In order to maintain her coffee shop, she is aware that she has to learn about online application. “I’m far from technology savvy,” said the second of four siblings.

The intensive and individual business mentoring programme has strengthened Ayu’s intention to create a customer-friendly coffee sales app. She was introduced to a business model, Canvas Business Model that maps nine business cores such as customers, financial structure, marketing and other key activities.

She also learnt about the advantages and disadvantages of using existing online trading platform. One of the advantages is that she does not have to create an online application herself, but she has to accept 20 percent sales deduction and does not have access to transaction and customers’ data.

“It’s fairly new thing for me. I couldn’t even thank my customers enough though they are important part of my business,” Ayu said.

She’s now more confident with her online business and sharpens her skill in online promotion and management. “By owning and managing my own online business, I’m free to decide the type of creativity and promotion to attract more customers.”

Nurturing children’s interest in reading through online app

When Difa participated in the 6th batch of online shop application training last August, she has been in furlough for one week from the foundation where she worked. The foundation had a focus to increase reading interest among children and teenagers by providing mobile library and community.

But since COVID-19 pandemic started, many of this foundation’s activities have to be postponed due to restriction and prohibition of direct interaction. This has made the foundation putting most of their workers into furlough, including Difa.

“I am very interested to participate in this training because I’ve always wanted to create an app that would boost children’s reading interest digitally,” said the graduate from nursing major.

Rapid development of technology and more children occupied with online games and forgetting books have convinced her to participate in the training.

During the business mentorship programme, Difa tried to improve gamification concept in the “Jelajah Negeri” application. To attract children’s interest, she gave them questions to answer after finishing a book. She even created a game that asks children to match parts of stories.

“This application will also challenge children to create stories with their own words based on one sentence shown in the app,” she added.

With her efforts to improve the app, Difa is more confident with her interest in reading and children, and she could use this application as her livelihood.

“I don’t feel like I’m unemployed. I really get to use the time effectively and build confidence on what I’ve been doing to be beneficial for the future,” said Difa with full of hope.

Women in STEM Workforce Readiness and Development Programme (2017-2020) funded by J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, to provide women in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines with non-technical and technical skills related to STEM, occupational skills and leadership.