What Industry Needs of Vocational School Graduate Competence in the Era of Industrial Revolution 4.0
Abstract
This study aims to formulate the competencies of vocational school (VS) graduates required by industries in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) era. This case study was conducted by involving business owners and industry practitioners with over 15-years of experience in managing human resources in the industry. Open-ended questionnaire and focus group discussion questions were two instruments validated by expert judgment, while the research data were analyzed by means of qualitative descriptive techniques. The results show that the main competencies of VS graduates expected by industries in the IR 4.0 era cover the aspects of hard skills including highly technical competencies, foreign languages skills, and information technology skills, as well as soft skill aspects especially honesty, discipline, responsibility, health, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovativeness, and problem-solving. The expected Vocational School learning processes are those that strengthen competency-certified technical skills integrated with soft skills according to industry needs supported by competent teachers and synergistic collaboration with the industrial world.
Keywords: Vocational school, competency, Industrial Revolution, 21st Century.
