BANDUNGWETAN, AYOBANDUNG.COM - Member of Commission V of the West Java DPRD, Aceng Malki, regretted that the Education Department did not seem to be responding to changes in industry and investment by providing vocational schools in accordance with industry needs.

He said that the availability of vocational school majors is currently still monotonous without paying attention to the conditions of industrial needs.

"I see that vocational school majors in West Java are not linear with investment," said Aceng, Sunday 15 December 2024.

He also gave an example in Karawang, which is one of the industrial centers, which is not accompanied by the provision of vocational school majors that suit needs.

In this district, there is a lot of investment in both the automotive and other industries, but the availability of vocational school majors is actually a lot of management.

As a result, many vocational school graduates are unable to enter work because their majors do not match the workforce needs in existing industries.

"There should be planning resulting from coordination with Bappeda or SKPD related to investment. This planning is related to providing majors in vocational schools that are suitable for incoming investment. For example, if there is incoming investment in the automotive sector, then there must also be many automotive majors," he explained.

Apart from that, vocational schools must also always update industrial technology so that their graduates can easily get jobs because their abilities are in line with industry needs.

"Don't let companies that build factories using advanced technology, but Vocational Schools haven't updated the technology, end up with graduates still not being able to get jobs because they don't master the technology," he explained.

According to Aceng, this condition actually occurs in West Java, so even though incoming investment is relatively high, labor absorption in the people of West Java is still low.

"Because the skills of vocational school graduates do not match industry needs, in the end many of the workers accepted come from outside West Java. That's why the Education Department must reform vocational school majors so that they suit needs," he concluded.***

(SOURCE)