East Java Province Wins Top Award for Reducing Vocational School Unemployment

The East Java Provincial Government has reaffirmed its position as a leader in employment performance. At the 2026 Regional Java-Bali Outstanding Local Government Awards held on Thursday (4/6/2026), East Java successfully achieved the first-place ranking in the category for Reducing Unemployment Rates at the provincial level.

This award, initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, was presented in recognition of Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa’s success in significantly lowering unemployment figures, particularly among graduates of Vocational High Schools (SMK).

The Governor of East Java, Khoflag Indar Parawansa, stated that this achievement is a tangible result of strengthening the ecosystem between education and the workforce. According to the Governor, the unemployment rate for SMK graduates in East Java has shown a very sharp downward trend thanks to strategic cooperation programmes.

“The unemployment rate for SMK graduates has decreased very significantly. This is the fruit of hard work and synergy between various parties, ranging from educational institutions to the business world,” said Khofifah after receiving the award in Yogyakarta.

This success was driven by the effective implementation of the ‘link and match’ concept between the business and industrial world (DUDI), universities, and vocational schools across East Java. This collaboration ensures that educational curricula are aligned with the needs of the modern labour market.

Not relying solely on domestic market absorption, the East Java Provincial Government has also taken progressive steps by expanding the placement of skilled labour to a global scale. Khofifah revealed that the programme for sending SMK graduates abroad has now reached 13 destination countries.

A creative and adaptive approach to international industrial standards remains the primary key. Through this expansion, SMK graduates from East Java are being prepared not just as workers, but as professionals capable of competing in strategic global industrial sectors.

Following this award, the East Java Provincial Government is committed to further strengthening the economic foundation through the employment sector. The primary focus moving forward is to maintain the positive trend of decreasing unemployment and to ensure that every graduate from educational institutions in East Java possesses high bargaining power in the global labour market.