VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government and Switzerland have cooperated on vocational education development through Skill for Competitiveness program (S4C), which is aimed at linking teaching process in the level of polytechnic school with the business sector.

"The cooperation is held in several polytechnic schools, such as in metal, furniture, and food sectors," Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir stated here on Tuesday.

The program will implement the Dual Vocational Education and Training (D-VET) system that is implemented by Swiss. The minister noted that the program was a breakthrough to support polytechnic revitalization program. The revitalization can improve the competence of vocational students.

"We hope the cooperation can fulfill the need for skilled workers in the industrial sector and minimize the ability gap," Nasir remarked.

The improvement will be carried out by changing the education curriculum to adapt with industrial necessity, retooling, and retraining polytechnic lecturers. The cooperation is needed to support polytechnic graduates to be experts in the industrial sector. Nasir hoped that the industry can assist with the learning process and the availability of lecturers in polytechnic institutions.

Meanwhile, the Swiss Ambassador to Indonesia, Yvonne Bauman, revealed that the program was an effort by the Swiss to support Indonesia in improving the quality of the students, in order to ease unemployment and boost Indonesia`s economy. ( antara )