Jakarta (Kompas: (03/11/07) Link and match between education and industry still has a problem. Relevancy between education and industry is more than just transferring knowledge or specific skills required by the industry.  The industry also needs workers who are capable of thinking, communicating, interacting, and working in a team. 

"Those skills should have been taught in basic and secondary education levels and they are closely related to character building," said Utomo Dananjaya, Director of Institute for Education Reform, in a discussion on link and match in education in Indonesia, last Wednesday. According to Utomo, there should be a ‘leap’ in vocational education, which means vocational training should not be taught in secondary education institutions but in polytechnics. “Training on industrial work could be obtained in work. If recruited workers already master general requirements, it would not be too difficult to adapt,” he said.

The main problem in education in Indonesia is the fact that the teachings are too focused on materials. This could be seen in how teaching subjects become very important in schools. There are 12 subjects in elementary school level, for instance; 16 in junior high and 22 in senior high school level. Consequently, students only learn those subjects and they never learn how to think, how to solve problems, how to work in a team and how to communicate. "There have been some effort to make improvements with the implementation of competency-based curriculum; however, not all of them are done correctly," he stated.

Sampoerna Foundation Chief Executive Officer Lin Che Wei shares similar opinion. He said the problem is not we are not having enough job opportunities as many people complained. The Industry also finds difficulties in recruiting skilful workers. The former president director of PT Danareksa pointed out that while he was in PT Danareksa he found difficulties in recruiting skilful workers, even though there are so many university graduates. The problems are mostly related to inability of the individuals to solve problems and their way of thinking. “If the candidates possess advantages in their way of thinking, the only need to follow two to three month training to make adaptation with his work," he asserted.