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Retired skilled workers to revamp vocational schools as instructors
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Students of a vocational school assemble computer parts during a competition in East Java. A new effort seeks to revitalize vocational schools by hiring retired skilled workers as instructors. (Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta)
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ndustry Ministry secretary general Haris Munandar has introduced the Silver Hair Expert program, which allows retired skilled workers to become instructors at vocational schools (SMK), as part of government efforts to address the shortage of experienced teachers at such schools.
“Only 30 percent of teachers at vocational schools are competent in technical skills, while the majority of teachers are knowledgeable of the theories of the subjects they teach to their students,” Haris said on Sunday at a discussion in Jakarta.
Haris said the ministry had organized a trial of the program by hiring retired workers from several factories to provide instruction at one of the ministry’s education and training centers in Yogyakarta.
Read also: Making vocational education great, for onceHe said the factory workers only required a basic, three-month teachers’ training to prepare them for the classroom, because they already possessed adequate knowledge, skills and experience in the subject that they were to teach.
Ideally, the retired workers could start working as instructors at five different vocational schools within a week, Haris said, adding that the ministry would discuss the program further with the Culture and Education Ministry.
The two ministries are planning to revamp the teaching methods and subjects at vocational schools to improve manpower quality as stipulated in Presidential Instruction No. 9/2016 on SMK revitalization.
According to the Central Statistics Agency's data, 346,678 vocational teachers worked at 12,421 vocational schools across the country in 2015. (dis/bbn)
