ISBN
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978-602-97249-0-5
International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training
78
with the limited competency and skills for their future as workforces but also with the non-technical competency to guarantee their success in social life.
It is a reality that in the educational process the VHS, more focus has been on the hard skill content, and it may be even said that the orientation is more on the hard skill
learning. Viewing the structure of the VHS curriculum, particularly that of Technology group of subjects in the category of productive education and training, there have been
25,72 class hours used for hard skill subjects, the remaining is allocated to the normative education and training 5 education and training subjects and the adaptive
education and training 8 subjects.
A fact taking place at schools that the development process of the soft skills may not bring about maximum results if the activities done are only in the forms of training,
general lectures by the counseling teacher and even by inviting external practitioner from industry world, and workshop. The component of self-improvement in the
curriculum structure of the VHS largely facilitates the activities of soft skill development. Self-development aims at giving chances to the learners to improve and
express themselves according to their requirement, competency, talent and interest suitable to the school condition. It is facilitated by andor under guidance of a counselor,
teacher, or another education person and can take the form of extra-curricular activities Regulation of National Education Minister No. 22; 2007. The emerging problems in
field are how to integrate the soft skill competency into the VHS curriculum, especially the competency of Architectural Engineering program for the fulfillment of competency
requirements of the construction service work. This paper would describe the method of integrating the soft skill competency in the VHS curriculum of the Architecture
Technique program.
B. Analysis of the Soft Skills Demand in the Construction Service Work
Many studies have been conducted and they reveals that the success of the VHS graduates at work field has not been determined by the hard skill competency alone, but
by the soft skill competency as well. For example, the communicative skills and working in team as part of the soft skill competencies are the requirements mostly
needed by almost all work fields. Hard skills are defined as a person’s technical capacity in mastering knowledge and skills closely related to hisher work. For example,
an engineer of civil engineering graduation should master the science and skills of civil
ISBN
:
978-602-97249-0-5
International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training
79
engineering. And soft skills are defined as a person’s competencies in making relationship with others interpersonal skills and in self-management interpersonal
skills.
The soft skill attributes acquired by every people at different levels are influenced by the way of thinking mindset, expressing words, taking action and behaving. These
attributes may change if the related person manages to change them by accustoming himherself to the new things. The VHS as a formal institution that produces
competencies tends to be the most conducive medium for self-accustoming to the improvement of one’s soft skills. It is due to that soft skills are learned through the
interaction with others and how a person faces the problems heshe encounters in his her life. The soft skills to be improved can be grouped into six categories, including: a
communication skills both oral and written, b organizational skills, c leadership, d logic and creative, e enduring in facing any pressures effort, f team work and
interpersonal and work ethics.
The construction service is a service involving construction planning, consruction, and construction supervision. The quality of product services is largely determined by
the acquisition of workforce competencies both hard skills and soft skills. The demand for hard skill competencies that is produced by the VHS as a provider of skillful
workforces for construction have been formulized in the curriculum particularly in the group of productive and adaptive education and training subjects, while the soft skill
competencies relevant to the learners’ knowledge and skills has not been formulized in a clear manner in the curriculum. To formulize the soft skills in the VHS curriculum and
to adapt them to the construction requirements, an analysis of soft skill competencies in the construction service is necessary.
The Meyer Key Competencies form the basis of the concept of generic competencies used in this paper. The project takes an integrated approach to
competence. This means competence is thought of in general terms of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes. The narrow task-based approach to competency is not the
focus here. We draw on the generic competencies set out in the reports by the Finn, 1991 and Mayer 1992a b as follows: a collecting, analyzing and organizing
information, b communicating ideas and information, c planning and organizing activities, d working with others and in teams, e using mathematical ideas and
techniques, f solving problems, g using technology, and h using cultural
ISBN
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978-602-97249-0-5
International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training
80
understandings. Points a to g are the key competencies and adopted by SKKNI as the key competency criteria that constitute the requirements to be fulfilled by a person to
achieve the required performance in the task implementation in a certain competency unit.
In the construction of a physical facility, the characteristics of the production process of construction service work are known as a hierarchy of construction scope
that is used to make the division of authorities and resources in planning, implementation and control. A work team who come to the location where a project will
be constructed always implements the work of construction service. A work team with such special task will leave a half-finished product of his resulting task to another work
team that will then continue on completing the project. Every work team remains contribute to the component addition or to the quality of end product. This process of
production is called ‘Parade of Trades’ Abduh: 2007. In this parade, it seems that a team will provide the next work team with a work place. If this work place does not
exist, since the previous team has not been completing it in conducting its work, then the next team cannot undertake its duty. This condition is an idle or a pending activity,
so it is time wasting. If this process of construction repeats, it is possible to count how many idles for each work team. It is necessary to consider that all construction service
works are tied to time target and to limited resources. The more idles, the greater its impact on the resource increment for the completion of the project.
With the actual description of the characteristics of the production process of the construction service and the generic competencies as mentioned above, it may be said
that the success of a work is largely determined by the soft skill competencies identified as the competency criteria to be acquired by the workers on the construction service
work in order for them to completing their works in a proper way. The identification of soft skill attributes relevant to the construction service work includes: 1
communication skills, 2 cooperation in the team work, 3 work ethics, 4 honesty, and 5 ability to work under time pressure.
C. The Characteristics of the Vocational High School Curriculum
