Exploring On the Job Training at Vocational Secondary School in Indonesia

How is on the job training implemented in the vocational secondary school?

Preparation: Mostly at School

Implementation: In industry

On the job training in the vocational secondary school is an interesting issue for several reasons:

1. On the Job training is a knowledge and technical skill-oriented.

There is an extremely wide gap between What is? and What should be?

Most skills developed over a lifetime are acquired on-the-job, mostly in enterprises where people work in both the formal and informal economies (Kazmi, 2007). The ultimate goal of vocational education or technical education is to develop ‘skill culture’ in contrast to pure academic culture and preferences for white collar jobs and ‘to serve simultaneously the ‘hand’ and the ‘mind’, the practical and the abstract, the vocational and academic’ (Grubb,1985).

2. On the job training programme in the vocational secondary school is expected to be able to improve their personal effectiveness. Personal skill is a necessity for unpredicted change of social world of work. However, in many ways, it does not satisfy the industries as users (Alam, 2008; Muliati, 2007). Why?

3. On the job training is widely mentioned as a bridging course for eventual transition from school world to the world of work. Many cases school leavers of vocational education are not mentally ready to enter the world of work. In what way?

4. Very few studies conducted to explore the implementation of on the job training as a part of vocational education programme.

Research Questions

1. What is the implication of prescribed objectives to the completion OJT programme?
2. To what extent of well-organized materials of the OJT agenda influence delivery of the OJT?
3. How does feedback affect students’ creativity in executing job problems?
4. How does the time allotment affect students’ achievement in the OJT programme?

By Ruslin

SMKN 1 Galang