Tanoto Foundation Shapes Future Leaders with Impact through Tanoto Scholars Gathering 2025

RAPP Complex, Pangkalan Kerinci, 24 July 2025 – The persistently high rate of educated unemployment and the low readiness of young leaders pose serious challenges on the road toward Indonesia Emas 2045.

According to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the national open unemployment rate (TPT) as of February 2025 stood at 4.76%, with 7.28 million unemployed individuals. Alarmingly, the TPT among university graduates continued to rise, reaching 5.25%. This reflects a clear gap between higher education output and the real needs of the labor market.

This situation shows that academic degrees alone are not enough to meet the demands of the workforce and future leadership. Graduates need not only technical competence, but also relevant soft skills, leadership, collaboration abilities, and strong social awareness, especially in today’s VUCA era, marked by rapid and unpredictable changes.

Responding to this challenge, Tanoto Foundation, an independent philanthropic organization in education founded by Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981, continues to be committed to encouraging the birth of university graduates who are ready to become impactful future leaders through its flagship program, TELADAN (Transformasi Edukasi untuk Melahirkan Pemimpin Masa Depan).

The TELADAN Program provides higher education scholarships to undergraduate students from 10 partner universities of Tanoto Foundation. Not only that, what distinguishes the TELADAN Scholarship Program from other scholarships is that Tanoto Scholars (the term for TELADAN program recipients) are also given structured leadership training from the second to the eighth semester to improve their leadership and soft skills.

Tanoto Scholars Gathering 2025: Learning and Leading

One part of the learning journey of TELADAN scholarship recipients is the Tanoto Scholars Gathering (TSG), an annual forum that brings together Tanoto Scholars from the same cohort from all over Indonesia to learn from each other, build networks, and strengthen leadership capacity.

This year, TSG was again held on 24–26 July 2025 at the RAPP Complex, Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau. A total of 291 Tanoto Scholars attended this activity. They came from Tanoto Foundation partner universities including IPB University, Diponegoro University, Gadjah Mada University, Brawijaya University, University of Indonesia, University of North Sumatra, Bandung Institute of Technology, Hasanuddin University, Mulawarman University, University of Riau, and Andalas University.

On the first day, the Deputy Minister for Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, Veronica Tan, who was one of the speakers, advised the participants of TSG 2025 that to become a leader, one must provide positive input to oneself and continuously strengthen their mentality.

The speaker on the second day, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Brian Yuliarto, said that university years are not only for studying but also for building other essential things for the future. Minister Brian also shared 12 characters to be successful.

On the third day, the CEO of Thisable Enterprise, Angkie Yudistia, shared an inspiring message about the importance of creating opportunities. She also advised Tanoto Scholars to become future leaders who have empathy, self-awareness, and a strong commitment to equality and are willing to collaborate with all parties.

Direct Learning from Sustainability Practices

First held in 2010, TSG brings together Tanoto Scholars from the same cohort from all over Indonesia to learn from each other, share, and network.

At TSG 2025, the theme carried was Learn & Lead: Becoming the Champion of Good (Learning and Leading: Becoming a Role Model of Goodness). Through this theme, Tanoto Scholars were invited to emulate impactful and sustainability-based leadership. This was implemented in the series of TSG activities which were specially designed.

First, Tanoto Scholars were introduced to the world of work and invited to see and learn firsthand how a sustainable business is built and developed through industrial visits to the business units of the RGE group, which was also founded by Sukanto Tanoto, the founder of Tanoto Foundation.

Then, they were also given the opportunity to learn from renowned speakers who were presented in person, from top government officials, academics, to public figures.

Not only that, Tanoto Scholars also received experiential leadership workshops such as outbound activities that sharpen teamwork skills, quick decision-making, and problem solving.

All of this aims to build Tanoto Scholars into leaders who have soft skills relevant to the working world, have leadership spirit, and are ready to make a positive impact in various fields and environments where they are present.