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.