Vocational Education System Needs Reforms, Reorientation: President Jokowi

President leads a limited cabinet meeting on vocational education and training at the Presidential Palace, Tuesday (13/9)(Photo by: Public Relations Division/Deni)

Indonesia’s prevailing vocational education and training system needs reforms and reorientation towards a demand-driven system, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo said during a limited cabinet meeting on vocational education and training at the Presidential Palace, Tuesday (13/9).

Thus, the President further said, curriculum, learning materials, work practice, testing, and certification should be adjusted with demands from the business world and industries.

“I also think we have to involve the business world and industries because they have a better understanding about the needs of workforce, including in primary sectors such as maritime, tourism, agriculture, and creative economy,” President Jokowi said, adding that the system and  demands of the business world and industries must be integrated in the vocational education and training system such as vocational schools orvocational training center (BLK).

The Government should also ease regulations for the opening of private vocational schools, the President said.

Previously, President Jokowi stated data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) that shows vocational school graduates (9.84 percent) make up the biggest portion of the number of unemployment, higher than senior high school graduates (6.95 percent), junior high school graduates (5.76 percent) and elementary school graduates (3.44 percent).

In the meantime, from 7.56 million of open unemployment, 20.76 percent are vocational school graduates.In terms of age, the number of unemployed people at the age of 15-19 reached 23.23 percent back in 2010, while in 2015 the figure rose into 31.12 percent.

President Jokowi also re-stated that competition among countries is increasingly fierce and tough; yet, the President said that in facing the competition, Indonesia actually has big strength, that is 60 percent of the population is young people.“60 percent of Indonesian population is young people. It will be our strength if we can manage and capitalize on this potential,” President Jokowi said, adding that the figure is expected to increase and Indonesia will have approximately 195 million of productive population.

President Jokowi believes Indonesia’s big population can also become potentials to improve the country’s productivity if they are well-prepared from now; yet if we fail to do so, the big population will potentially create problems, especially unemployment at young age.

Therefore, President Jokowisaid that Indonesia must be focused on building qualified human resources so the country can make headway and catch upwith other countries.“We must be able to transform our workforce from the mainly elementary school or junior high school graduates into a well-educated and skilled workforce,” the President concluded. (FID/DID/OJI/ES)(EP/YM/Naster)