Articulation and Assessment SOFT SKILLS EDUCATION FOR PREPARING VOCATIONAL SECONDARY HIGH SCHOOL IN PRODUCING SKILLED GRADUATES

Table 1. Shares of General and Vocational Programmes in Seniorupper Secondary Education

8. Management and Quality Assurance

The increasing complexity of the educational system including TVET system requires better management both at national and provincial levels. Consequently, capacity building for administrators is needed. In the same line, mushrooming TVET institutions worries both educational practitioners and policymakers especially in regards to the quality of education and training programmes they offer. Quality assurance, therefore, is an important issue that should be addressed holistically. This quality assurance is also directly related to the issue of matriculation and accreditations that eventually affect the skills recognition of the graduates. Thus, the issue of workers mobility should be addressed by initiating the discussion on quality assurance.

9. Poverty reduction through Non-Formal

TVET Non-formal TVET such as the one offered by Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration of Indonesia and those organized by community and industries can play very important roles in helping those who cannot afford to enroll in formal TVET. Training for unemployed individuals with job- specific training will enhance their employability and eventually can pull them out of poverty. This type of training is usually short term, few days or weeks and less structured.

10. Life-long learning

In this era, where technology changes so rapidly, knowledge-based sectors are dominating industry’s revenues thus every country is required to produce more knowledge workers. Education, including TVET, should offer more flexibility to students and provide a strong foundation on learning how to learn. The easy access to information through various media and the possibilities of carrying out jobs through various ways has open opportunity to individuals to learn continuously throughout their lives regardless of their age. Lifelong learning is one of the important components of 21st century workforce requirements, besides among others adaptability, practical skills, awareness of global issues, communication skills, and teamwork. As summarized by Khamayat and Majumdar 2010, Twenty-first century skills combining technology literacy, critical thinking, creativity and mastery of core subject matter are the lifeblood of a productive workforce in todays global, knowledge-based economy.”

11. Promoting decent work

As initiated by International Labour Organisation ILO, TVET should promote decent work. TVET as producer of future workforces should devote to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Further ILO stated that TVET should promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues ILO, 2011. Source: Roseveare 2010 74 12. Breaking down the barriers between formal, non-formal and informal approaches This trend is in line with lifelong learning and education articulation whereby learners can have the opportunity and options to enroll in various learning avenues throughout their lives and their learning experiences can be recognized no matter where they learned it from UNESCO- UNEVOC, 2008. In Indonesia, the policy of multi- exit and multi-entry is in line with this trend.

13. Initiatives in response to current trends and

issues In response to the above trends and issues in TVET, this paper proposes some initiatives that can be grouped into the followings:

14. Integration of 21

st century skills This initiative is particularly in response to the trends and issues on ICT in TVET and relevancy of curriculum. This is also to promote lifelong learning and enhance competitiveness of TVET graduates. In this 21st century, expertise is a process, not a level of aptitude and TVET must incorporate meta-cognitive skills, which is part o the 21st century skills, “to allow self directed learners to continually improve, to allow coaches and mentors to better guide development, and to recognize a wide array of “spaces” in which learning might take place” Todd, 2010. There is also an increasing recognition that technical expertise alone is insufficient to ensure employability –“know how” must be accompanied by “know who” and “know what” – contextually embedded practices and networks, professional expectations, ethics, values and norms Inkson Arthur, 2001. The importance of 21st century skills, within which also include “good work cultures” is also stressed by prominent economist David Landes stating that these skills can be the determining factors for country’s development. “Although climate, natural resources, and geography all play roles in explaining why some countries are able to make the leap to industrialization and others are not, the key factors is actually a country’s cultural endowments, particularly the degree to which it has internalized the values of hard work, thrift, honesty, patience, and tenacity, as well as the degree to which it is open to change.” David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations as cited by Friedman 2005. The integration of 21st century skills in TVET curriculum has led to demands for broader forms of initial vocational education which lay the foundation for further learning. These essentials and foundations skills are very crucial for the 21st century. The response to this in many countries has been to readjust upper secondary vocational programmes to contain a larger element of general education and more generic forms of vocational preparation, where the latter prepares participants for a cluster of occupations in a given sector rather than for a single one Atchoarena, 2010. Figure 1. 21 st Century student outcomes and support systems 75