Vocational Education: A Missing Link for the Competitive Graduates?

Abstract

The present study is based on the issue of the competitiveness of vocational education graduates. This condition is likely due to the irrelevance between the content or the competencies developed and the superiority of the regions (Regency/Municipality). Therefore, the first step to improve the competitiveness of the graduates is evaluating the accordance of their competencies developed by the vocational education in every region of the regency or municipality. This study used a policy evaluation method formulated in the form of Service Quality (ServQual) by taking all vocational schools in 6 (six) sample districts/cities. The research instruments used are in-depth interview and document studies. The data were then analyzed using Location Quotient (LQ), growth ratio, and Overlay (Ovr) analysis. It indicates that the content of vocational education reflected in the competence of skills developed was not relevant to the issues or potential of each district/city. This condition causes the low competitiveness of vocational education graduates, both in entrepreneurship and competitiveness in the national and international labor market.