R and D vital to industry, official says
R and D vital to industry, official says
By Prapti Widinugraheni
MANADO, North Sulawesi (JP): Indonesia still has a long way to go while before its industrialists are fully aware of the need for research and development programs, a senior government official says.
Jorlin Pakpahan, the ministry of education and culture's Director for Vocational Education said this week that more companies are establishing research and development (R and D) departments as part of their long-term investment.
"Most of the industries in Indonesia were started not by industrialists but by traders, who only thought about the fastest way to gain a profit. They don't see research and development as an integral part of costs and investments. Industrialists, on the other hand, look beyond that, into the future," Pakpahan told The Jakarta Post. He was accompanying Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro who visited the Tondano Handicraft Industry Vocational School.
The school, similar to other vocational schools across the country, is equivalent to a senior high school.
Pakpahan said that the lack of awareness was one of the reasons why not all industries openly welcomed the government's call for them to allow students of vocational schools to work at their companies on a temporary basis.
However, he was convinced that the pressure from globalization and economic liberalization would force such industries to admit that human resources will be the key to determine the survival and success of an industry, with research and development playing a major role.
"We shouldn't worry because we are only at the first stages of industrialization. In the future, there is no way (industrialists) can avoid it," he said.
With the development of research and development, Pakpahan said, the link and match or dual system introduced by Wardiman would be even more effective, giving mutual benefit to both industry and students of vocational schools.
"School can provide students the theories and basic knowledge of a certain field, but can't teach actual professional skills. Any efforts to do this by the school would only serve as simulation -- which would be very different from the real thing. We have to face it: the system of values in the industrial world is often very different from that in the education world," Pakpahan said.
He pointed out that science and technology developed more rapidly in industry than in schools. "Without the link and match system, and with the increasing trend for research and development in companies, schools will always be a step behind the industry," Pakpahan stressed.