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)