Vocational schools struggle to be come more professional

Vocational schools struggle to be come more professional

Vocational education tries to bring the education system in
line with the changing needs of industry and commerce. Vocational
schools are expected to yield professional, highly skilled
individuals who will meet the demands of rapidly changing
workplaces. Such expectations are proving difficult to achieve.
In conjunction with National Education Day, which falls today,
The Jakarta Post's Rita A. Widiadana exposes problems facing
vocational training.

JAKARTA (JP): Several students are busy learning how to write
business letters using typewriters in the workshop of an
economics high school in West Jakarta.

The atmosphere in the room reminds one of a situation at a
village district office: sounds of old typewriters, piles of
paper and antiquated office furniture.

Besides typing, students are taught subjects ranging from
conventional bookkeeping, administration, English and general
subjects.

After graduating, the students are expected to enter the
workforce. But here lies the problem.

How can these students gain a place in an employment world
where most offices are equipped with high-tech machines, such as
the computers, teleconferencing systems and other sophisticated
office tools?

To make matters worse, modern businesses no longer use
conventional bookkeeping methods, replacing them with more
appropriate and complex accounting and financial systems.

This is only one illustration of a vocational school unable to
keep pace with rapid technological changes; the school fails to
meet the demand of the industrial world for skilled human
resources.

Private technical high school Bunda Kandung is lucky to have
well-equipped training centers and workshops with high-tech
machines, a chemistry laboratory, computer centers, a well-
managed library and other facilities.

School teacher Adam Maik said his students are taught academic
and practical work in order to adjust them to the realities of
the employment market.

Students are required to follow apprenticeship programs in
related industries. "We hope our graduates are ready to fit into
their related work field," Adam said.

There are thousands of vocational schools focusing on various
subject matters including technical schools, economics,
housekeeping, health, food and nutrition, agriculture, textile
and designs, craftsmen, hotel and tourism and aviation.

In greater Jakarta alone, there are 340 economics schools, 110
technical schools and 25 tourism and hotel schools. Each school
has between 100 and 1,000 students.

Ideally, vocational school graduates would annually provide
thousands of new workers to their related industry. The fact is,
most of them can not meet real world working requirements.

Noted educator Father J. Drost said at a recent seminar that
vocational schools play very important roles in the education and
industrial sector, providing they are managed professionally.

Statistics show only 1.5 percent of high school graduates are
able to continue their studies at higher learning institutions.
In universities, institutes, and other high-level education
institutions, the number of dropouts has reached an alarming 80
percent.

"Ideally, vocational schools accommodate students who are not
able to continue studies at higher levels and produce a skillful
workforce," he said.

There are some crucial problems facing vocational education:
inflexible and inapplicable curriculums, high-cost operations and
the wide gap between schools and industry.

A closer relation of schools with industry is preserved in the
l994 National Curriculum, which requires the collaboration
between local businesses and all vocational schools.

Then Minister of Education and Culture Fuad Hassan began a
campaign to establish a strong relation between the business
community and schools. His successor, Wardiman Djojonegoro,
continued to popularize the "link and match" slogan.

Chairman of the Arts and Design Department of the National
Vocational School Council Harry Darsono, reiterated that all
slogans and efforts must be continually revised and followed up.

"It is not enough to only produce rhetoric. We need prompt
action to improve the quality of vocational education in the
country."

Curriculums must be reformed and training systems remodeled to
fit new situations.

To acquire the skills needed for working with the new
technology, training and retraining throughout working life is
now held to be essential for everybody.

Vocational schools should also focus on improving overall
skills, including negotiation, coping skills, decision-making,
critical thinking, interrelationships and communication.

Work experience (for both teachers and students) was expanded
along with the schools' links with industry. Vocational know-how
is encouraged in order that students may start their own
businesses.

Harry said the government must be adaptive and responsive to
the rapid changes in society and the world of work.

"There are many businessmen eager to lend support to help
these students gain more fulfilling work experience, but the
government should also work to make that happen," he said.

People must change their perceptions toward vocational
schools. "People feel less prestigious if they enroll their kids
at these schools because they cannot gain university diplomas,"
he said.

It is their choice to have children who are unemployed
university graduates or young adults who receive vocational
training and go on to obtain a fulfilling job and a promising
career.