Policy Gaps in Indonesia’s Caregiver Training Curriculum and Their Impact on International Care Worker Mobility

The dynamics of labor mobility between Australia's aging elderly population and Indonesia's surplus productive workforce face a major challenge: inconsistencies in training curricula. This study aims to analysis the structural gap between the policy of the non-formal care workers training curriculum in Indonesia and the Aged Care Australia (CHC33021) qualification standards, a mismatch that positions Indonesian migrant care workers within a liminal professional space marked by uneven competency recognition. Using a comparative documentary analysis methodology, this study evaluates five main competency clusters: language proficiency, core caregiving skills, ethics and human rights, digital literacy, and work culture. Theoretically, this study integrates Turner's (1974) concepts of "liminality" and Foucault's (1995). The results showed that the 40% placement failure rate was not caused by individual incompetence, but by the absence of a Mutual Recognition Arrangement mechanism and differences in regulatory philosophy. Critical gaps include the absence of mandatory clinical practicums, non-standard English-language thresholds, and a disregard for rights-based ethics. As a solution, this study proposes a Bilateral Curriculum Alignment Framework (BCAF) to transform the migrant workforce. These findings contribute to the literature on migration-development governance and the achievement of SDGs targets through dignified labor mobility.