By: Rega Firmansyah *)
Jakarta, CIDISS – There was an interesting thing from President Jokowi’s visit to Germany. During a visit that had taken for two days since Sunday (17/4) until Monday (18/4), there are a few major issues that be discussed by the two leaders, ranging from economic issues to security issues. Among those “normative” issues, there was an “unique” issue that had been discussed seriously. That issue is German support for the development of vocational education in Indonesia. Herein lies the “interesting” point from Mr. Jokowi’s visit to Germany, because the issue of the development of vocational education is not too often to be discussed in a bilateral relationship
Related to that, Mr. Jokowi wants Germany to provide assistance in the development of vocational training, particularly for the fields related to the industry. Those vocational field that want to being developed seriously by the government, such as electricity, power plant, textile industry, and maritime. The government seems very serious to talk about the development of vocational education in Indonesia with the German government. It is seen from the steps of Mr. Jokowi that had his visit to Siemensstadt (a kind of school and vocational training) in Berlin before talking privately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The government’s enthusiasm to ask for German’s assistance to develop vocational education in Indonesia is reasonable. There are two main reasons why the government is doing that. First, Germany is known as a country that is quite successful in developing its vocational education. It can be seen from the flourishing of the domestic industry of Germany. The second reason, governments are increasingly swiftly to address the needs of today’s market.
In the era of free trade as now, qualifications or expertise in a particular field must be owned by an Indonesian labor absolutely. If the Indonesian workers do not have a special skill, we can guess that Indonesian workers will always lose when compete with workers from other countries, especially the developed countries. Moreover, Indonesia had entered into the era of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Under these conditions, the Indonesian labor must inevitably increase the specific qualifications in certain fields, and one way is to strengthen vocational education in Indonesia.
However, the hard work of the government gives such a good result if the people of Indonesia itself still underestimating the vocational education. We should admit that in the eyes of most people of Indonesia, the future of a child who was educated in the vocational track will not have a future as bright as a child who was educated with general education. The early assumption must be changed. In the era of free trade as today, the specialized skilled workforce which is born of the vocational education track has a very promising future. Therefore, parents should not hesitate if they want to send their children in vocational education pathways. In addition to having a future that is no less bright, the government is also very keen to develop the quality of vocational education in Indonesia. [RF]
*) CIDISS Contributor