Tarakanita College produces new secretaries

Tarakanita College produces new secretaries

JAKARTA (JP): Joy and happiness filled the faces of 877
Tarakanita Secretarial College students at their graduation day
at the Jakarta Convention Center Saturday.

Happiness also filled their families' faces. As soon as the
ceremony closed, relatives rushed to congratulate graduates.

"I feel very happy because I've officially finished at
college," said one graduate, who had already worked as a
secretary in a private bank for over a year.

Also present were the college's director Sister Francino
Harianja and legislator J. Siberu, who gave a keynote speech
titled The Quality of Human Resources in Facing Challenges in
Globalization Era.

Two of the graduates completed their studies in 1992, six in
1993, six in 1994, 374 in 1995 and the remaining 489 finished
this year.

Data shows 722 have already worked in private companies like
banks, airlines, publishers, television stations, real estates
agencies, embassies and hotels.

Tarakanita Foundation chairwoman Sister Antari Mursiwi warned
graduates that graduation was not their destination.

"New graduates should make this event a starting point to
become professional secretaries," Antari said.

The college, founded in 1968, is one of Jakarta's oldest
secretarial colleges. It has between 500 and 600 students and
about 400 graduate annually.

The college offers two diploma programs: a one-year program
for office secretaries, and a three-year program for directors'
secretaries.

Francino said the a one-year diploma was for simple
secretarial jobs, while the three-year program aimed to produce
secretaries capable of accompanying their bosses on more
important jobs.

The number of the college's graduates is still low compared to
the number of from secretarial courses in the city because most
courses offer short programs ranging from six months to a year.

However, the head of the Indonesian Association of Secretaries
(ISI) Dewi Margono complained about the quality of many
secretaries. "They cannot even type addresses onto envelopes."

The association plans to survey the quality of several
secretarial institutes. The association is a member of the board
in charge of examining the curricula of vocational schools. The
board in under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and
Culture. (ste)