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.