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unemployment rate of vocational graduates is lower than general graduates, increasing the share of vocational graduates in the mix would result in a lower overall
unemployment rate.
a. The Differences between General and Vocational School
The select in learning between general or vocational school often becomes doubtful things. Most students from junior high school choose to continue their
studies in general school rather than in vocational one. Meanwhile, each student has his or her own purpose in relation to the passion.
According to the specialization, both general and vocational school offer its own majors. Altinok, 2012 says that in general school, there are three common
majors that can be find. They are natural science, social science, and language. On the other hand, the vocational school offers many majors. The available majors are
business management; technical, which includes machinery and information technology; agriculture and forestry; community welfare; tourism; arts and
handicraft; health; aviation; shipbuilding; and marine studies. All of these elections, the first two, business management and technical, are the two most popular majors in
some vocational schools. According to Becker 1964, human capital framework is divided into two. The
first is general and the second is specific human capital. It is assumed that the general school generates general human capital while the vocational school forms the specific
human capital. The general human capital occurs in many job fields. It is flexible for any workers and it can change the task or even the type of work. The specific human
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capital has its distinctive, for instance, preparing specific job relevant skills. This distinctive makes the graduates of vocational school ready for suitable jobs they are
concentrated on.
b. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying in Vocational School
Studying in vocational school is merely not effortless task to do even though it focuses more on each stream. Many of the students find difficulties especially when
they face the lesson which are excluded on the stream. Hanushek, Schwerdt, Woessmann, Zhang, 2015 propose several advantages and even disadvantages of
studying in vocational school are presented. The advantages of enrolling at a vocational school are mentioned. First, the
offered courses are concentrated to the future career. For instance, students who take shipbuilding major are taught lessons related to the proportion of building, the
material, and the circumstances. Thus, the students can focus in their major stream. Second, there are other general lessons for each major in vocational school but they
are only additional. According to For instance, Indonesian, English, religion, math, sport, and art. These lessons contribute less emphasis than the lessons in each stream.
Third, the courses are trained faster than in general school. It costs less time than a college education as well. Therefore, the graduates of vocational school are expected
to have capable for working no need extra time for taking college. However, there is also disadvantage of studying in vocational school that can
be indicated. As Hanushek et al. 2015 imply that since an education at a vocational school earn trade, the career limiting yourself for which you have studied. For