“The centers of excellence vocational schools are spread all across Indonesia. A total of 831 SMK PKs have received assistance from the government through a matching fund scheme and 373 SMK PKs have received grants from the industry or through matching schemes," director general of vocational education at the ministry, Kiki Yuliati, informed here on Friday.
In the first year of SMK PKs, 349 business and industrial entities cooperated with regional education units with an investment of Rp439 billion (US$28 million), she added.
"Not only large industries, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) also took part in this collaboration," Yuliati said.
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Thus, the government will continue its commitment to develop the vocational education ecosystem, including through the SMK PK Matching Scheme program and co-funding, she affirmed.
This is in line with the President's instructions, as stipulated in the Presidential Regulation on Vocational Education. "Vocational education is one of the government's focuses for creating superior human resources. For this reason, the President has high expectations for the advancement of vocational education," he said.
Meanwhile, director of vocational schools at the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry, Wardani Sugiyanto, said that the centers of excellence vocational schools focus on developing vocational schools with certain expertise and competencies, which are improved through partnerships with businesses and industrial entities so that they eventually become references for other schools.
"This SMK PK is a part of Freedom in Learning, which started in 2021; even 2020, it has started with the SMK Center of Excellence (CoE)," Sugiyanto noted.
He informed that in 2022, the implementation of the SMK PK Matching Scheme reached 373 SMK PKs, which received assistance from 349 industries. Nine of them were a consortium with their total industrial investment commitment under the scheme reaching Rp439.25 billion.
"This achievement is, of course, also (realized through efforts ranging from) the synchronization of the curriculum according to industry needs, improving industry practitioners and apprenticeship opportunities for teachers to improve competency, to improving infrastructure that supports learning," he added.
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Translator: Indriani, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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