Link between education and industry

Link between education and industry

By Sg. Ferryanto

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): Our tertiary education
institutions are subject to serving as research and development
centers. They are expected to play a major role in technology
transfer programs, together with ministerial and non-ministerial
research centers.

It is understandable, upon entering the Second 25-year
Development Program this year, that the Ministry of Education is
promoting its "Link and Match" concept among the tertiary
education institutions under its auspices.

Despite the fact that the complete meaning and implications of
this concept have yet to be defined, we can readily infer from
the context that it calls for two things: First, it is expected
that whatever is learned at tertiary education institutions be
directly related (link) to industry; second, it is expected that
every university graduate be able to quickly adapt to (match) the
requirements of his job.

Assuming the perception upon which this concept is based is
warranted, we can explain it in another way. Tertiary education
institutions are expected to produce "ready for use human
resources", a term popular some time ago.

Unfortunately, such an interpretation of the Link and Match
concept tends to focus on the "type of education" that aims at
giving all graduates the right profile to enable them to serve as
the nuts and bolts of industry.

Ironically almost all major, manufacturing industries in
Indonesia engage themselves in the assembling stage of production
based on the licenses granted by more advanced countries.
Consequently, the jobs they create are more oriented toward
assembling, repair and marketing. Within such a context, the
scope of the Link and Match concept tends to be limited to
yielding well-trained human resources and nothing more.

This tendency has been pointed out by the management of a
domestic electronics manufacturer that develops and manufactures
its own products without any dependence on external license or
reliance on foreign expertise. Generally, it is admitted that our
university graduates are employed by most industries merely as
trained workers: Assembly workers, repairmen, or salesmen who
sell the products of others.

In advanced industrial countries, the Link and Match concept
is applied only to specialized educational institutions called
Volptechnic or Fachhochschule. These should be distinguished from
universities or Hochschule. Universities function more as centers
of excellence whose activities are centered on research. In
Indonesia, in addition to the fact that we still have a limited
number of polytechnics, our universities bear such a resemblance
to polytechnics and they are still far from being centers of
excellence.

Apparently the interpretation of Link and Match that calls for
tertiary education institutions to produce skilled workers has
won positive responses from the industrial world. This is
reflected in their enthusiasm towards the apprenticeship
programs. In these programs students work temporarily at their
respective facilities and the curricula are designed with
complete freedom by those in the various industries.

This enthusiasm is fully justified, since the narrowing down
of the meaning of the Link and Match concept to apprenticeship
programs gives the manufacturers a number of advantages. The
programs are highly reliable and economically advantageous given
the conditions of our existing manufacturing world.

The benefits of the apprenticeship programs to the industrial
world of Indonesia are manifolds. First, the programs provide a
highly cost-efficient replacement to their in-house training. The
cost is certainly lower and the participants of such programs
will always be those who are in the final stage of their
education. Second, during the programs, selection of new
employees can be made. Third, the industries can take advantage
of low cost manpower to help in their manufacturing process
during the period of apprenticeship. Fourth, the programs can
also serve as an orientation period so that the industries will
obtain truly 'combat-ready' manpower when the students graduate
from their institutions and return to work in industries where
they had their apprenticeship.

The only loss factories may sustain is if some of their best
apprentices decide to get jobs somewhere else after graduating.
On the other hand, as research and development centers, tertiary
education institutions do not receive much benefit from the
apprenticeship programs except that their graduates have a better
chance of getting a job immediately after completing their study.

A more proper interpretation of the Link and Match concept
should not be limited to benefiting the industrial world alone,
it should also support the tertiary education institutions in
their roles as research and development centers.

In Indonesia, where most tertiary education institutions are
universities that are expected to serve as centers of excellence,
tertiary education is expected to play a more significant role in
ensuring the mastery of scientific methodological instruments
necessary for acquisition and development of technology that is
required in developing high caliber industries. The mastery of
technology should be sought independently, and in a continuous
manner, and it relies heavily on the mastery of scientific
methodological instruments.

The definition of the Link and Match concept should be based
on mutual benefits. Industries will obtain highly skilled
manpower as well as the necessary technology, while students can
learn about real-world problems from their experience in applying
the instruments of scientific methodology that they have learned.

This objective cannot be achieved simply by relying on the
apprenticeship programs to the industries alone. Contributions
from the industrial world are also necessary to make it possible
for tertiary education institutions to perform their tasks. One
such contribution could be in the form of short visits by
instructors in tertiary education institutions to industrial
facilities as well as by staff of the facilities to the
institutions.

Visits by instructors to industrial facilities can take either
of the two following forms: First, they can come to learn about
production processes. This may sound like an apprenticeship for
instructors.

The benefits for technical education institutions are
multiple. First, instructors can learn about real-world problems
faced by industries. Second, they can see for themselves the
actual application of theories or methods they teach to their
students. Third, they will feel challenged to utilize their
methodological and scientific ability to contribute in solving
those problems. Fourth, they will also be inspired to produce
innovations, which at least will enrich the teaching and learning
process at their respective institutions. Finally, through this
type of teaching and learning process, their students will have a
better idea of the problems they will have to cope with once they
start working in the industries. Such a program has already been
implemented, among others, by companies in the oil exploration
sector. Schlumberger has a program that they call "Professors
Cooperation Programs".

The second type of visits by instructors can take the form of
short courses targeted at the staff in the industries.
Instructors from education institutions can teach short courses
to update the knowledge of people in the industries, to let them
know about the latest advancement of technology being developed
at their institutions which may be applicable to the industries.
Such programs have also been implemented, among others, by
Polytron with its "Guest Lecturer Programs".

Reciprocally, staff from the industries can visit educational
institutions, particularly their own alma mater, with the support
from the industry where they work. These visits do not carry any
promotion or recruitment mission for the sake of the industries;
rather, they are aimed at a sharing of experience. The staff can
share with students and instructors the relevance of what they
learned at the institutions to the requirements of their jobs and
the jobs themselves. The industries will be promoting themselves
by sending their successful staff to the institutions. Such
visits will give the same benefits as the visits by instructors
to the industries.

With the addition of the short visit programs, we can expect
that the implementation of the Link and Match concept will be
interactive and dialectical between the industrial and
educational worlds. They will also be mutually beneficial to
both. Furthermore, this will answer the concern among some people
that the role of tertiary education institutions may be reduced
to supporting the industrial sectors with the concept of Link and
Match.

The writer is lecturer at the Electrical Engineering College
at the Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.