Vocational school not up to par

Vocational school not up to par

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) revealed on
Wednesday that many vocational school graduates fell short of
what was required by the industrial sector as the curricula
applied failed to keep pace with rapid developments in industrial
technology.

"Only 40 percent of vocational school graduates are absorbed
by the (industrial) sector," said Yudi P. Djojokusumo, chairman
of the East Jakarta branch of Kadin.

Yudi attributed the low absorption rate in part to the poor
quality of graduates as well as the enduring economic crisis that
had forced industry to take on less workers.

Many graduates, Yudi said, had failed to keep up with the
rapid innovations in industrial technology.

"Fresh graduates, for instance, are unable to handle or
operate brand-new machines as they are used to operating the old
ones," he said.

"Only 20 percent of the workers recruited by industry managed
to meet the required standards," he said.

Suryana Hidayat, principal of state vocational school 26 in
Rawamangun, East Jakarta, admitted that many vocational schools
found it difficult to follow developments in industrial
technology due to the limited funds available to them to provide
training for new technology.

"The state only provides Rp 200 million a year for the
operational costs of running a school," he said.

Suryana also blasted many companies that insisted on better
quality graduates, but failed to provide support for achieving
the required qualifications.

"Many companies ask for better qualified graduates but if we
ask for support (to improve their quality), they don't respond,"
Suryana complained.

A total of 312 students graduated from Vocational School 26
this year, Suryana said.

Last year, more than 60,000 students graduated from 584 state
and private vocational schools here.

The Jakarta office of the Central Bureau of Statistics
reported that the percentage of vocational school graduates in
the work force was about 20 percent, or 4 million workers, the
second highest number after high school graduates (23 percent).

Suryana said the lack of funds for upgrading the quality of
the school had prompted him to ask for support from the West Java
Institutional Development Project (WJIDP), a program run by
AusAID.

"Fortunately, wee obtained Rp 1.5 billion (AUD$300,000)
from the government of Australia to build an industrial training
center," Suryana told reporters following the inauguration of the
newly established training center.

The new training center, Suryana said, would not only serve
the school's students but also other students as well as workers
upon request.

Meanwhile, John Nagel, WJIDP team leader, said the newly-
inaugurated center had been developed as part of the Indonesia-
Australia Partnership for Skills Development program.

Nagel said that the project, which was aimed at ensuring
students achieved competence in accordance with the needs of
industry, would run for three-and-a-half years.

"We hope that other training institutions will look at the
newly established training center and follow its suit in
improving their own training," he said.

Nagel revealed that similar support had also been provided to
other schools, including Vocational School 3 in Tangerang,
Banten, and the Institute of Textile Technology (STTT) in
Bandung, West Java.