In increasing the participation of Vocational High Schools (SMK) to prevent exploitative recruitment practices, since the beginning of 2022 the Institute for Education Development, Social, Religious and Cultural Studies (INFEST) Foundation had been running a program to strengthen the capacity of SMK teachers in the Wonosobo District. This program was a collaboration with the Office of Education, Youth and Sports (Disdikpora) of Wonosobo and was supported by the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) in order to prevent the practice of modern slavery.
The program, which had been running from February to December 2022, involved various parties, particularly in the drafting process, such as the Education and Culture Office of Central Java Province, Branches of the Education and Culture Office for Regions IX & XIII, and Disdikpora Wonosobo. In addition, other parties involved in the drafting of module were the Office of Manpower, Industry and Transmigration; the Wonosobo District Vocational School Principal Work Forum (MKKS), and the Wonosobo District Special Job Exchange Communication Forum (FK-BKK).
The program was implemented through various activities such as program planning and coordination with relevant stakeholders and research on the vulnerability of SMK students/alumni in entering the Business/Industrial World. It also consisted of compiling and publishing a manual “Job Market and Responsible Work” as teaching material in schools. Training was also conducted for SMK teachers as well as regular teacher meetings which acted as a communication approach between SMK teachers in Wonosobo. In practice, both SMK teachers and SMA(High School) teachers were involved.
The teachers receiving the benefits of the training consist of BKK teachers and counselling guidance (BK) teachers who were also part of the Guidance and Counselling Teacher Forum (MGBK) in Wonosobo. Apart from vocational counselling teachers, MGBK also consists of SMA counselling teachers and Madrasah Aliyah (MA) throughout Wonosobo. Good communication was not only established between the INFEST Foundation and the education units in Wonosobo, especially the vocational and high school teachers participating in the training, but also MGBK Wonosobo.
MGBK EXPO “Realise Your Dream!”
The collaboration between the INFEST Foundation and MGBK Wonosobo resulted in a MGBK EXPO event titled “Realise Your Dream!” which took place over two days on 13-14 December 2022 at the Sasana Adipura Kencana Building Wonosobo. This activity aims to prepare SMK/SMA/MA students/alumni to enter higher education and the workplace. The MGBK EXPO, which was the first Job Fair and Edu Fair in Wonosobo, succeeded in involving dozens of universities and DUDI in the Central Java region and the Special Region of Yogyakarta.
This event was also attended and opened by the Section Head of the Vocational High School Branch of the Central Java Education Office Region IX, Suwanto. In his remarks, Suwanto stated “The so-called Tracer Study does not only belong to Vocational High Schools, but also High Schools must pay attention to Tracer Studies to find out where our children (students) go after graduation, whether to continue their studies or entrepreneurship or work.” Tracer study itself is a program belonging to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikburistek). He also conveyed the direction from the Director General of Vocational Education that Tracer Study was an important part of the process of quality assurance of vocational education as mandated by Presidential Regulation Number 68 of 2022 concerning ‘Revitalisation of Vocational Education and Training’. In addition, it remained the main tool for measuring the results of vocational education work, namely the employment of graduates of vocational education.
Talk Show Preparing Yourself to Enter the World of Work
The INFEST Foundation supported the Job Fair and Edu Fair activities initiated by MGBK Wonosobo, one of which was through active participation in talk shows and decent work campaigns through the MGBK EXPO 2022 booth. A presentation was conducted on the first day titled’ Entering the World of Work’.
At the beginning of her presentation, Novia mentioned the importance of providing herself with as much information as possible about decent work, the job market, labour recruitment and preventing modern slavery practices before entering the world of work. Novia conveyed the importance of listening to the material that was going to be delivered, stating that it was necessary information that would assist in ” prevent(ing) the practice of modern slavery, exploitation, forced labour, human trafficking.”
Talk shows were also carried out interactively through quizzes on each of the four subject matters that were presented. The students were highly enthusiastic and demonstrated their attention throughout the presentations. Hundreds of students remained seated following the talk show which lasted for about two hours. Some of those who actively participated in the quiz also said that the material presented was very important for them before they graduated and entered the world of work.
Apart from talk shows, dissemination of knowledge about decent work was also delivered through brochures. The four brochures distributed contained information on decent work, labour recruitment, preventing the practice of modern slavery and reporting mechanisms in cases of exploitation. The flyers were distributed by INFEST activists with two teachers from two SMKs in Wonosobo over two days. These brochures were not only distributed, students who visited the INFEST booth near the stage were also explained the content and purpose of what was written.
