Students’ Writing Project in Vocational Schools in North Sulawesi:

Design and Challenges

Mister Gidion Maru

English Education Department, Universitas Negeri Manado, Manado, Indonesia

Keywords: Writing Projects, Tourism, Professionalism, Vocational School.

Abstract: Writing skill in English can bridge the making of professionalism required in work fields. This study deals

with the attempts to figure out the existing condition of the development of writing skill in vocational

schools, particularly tourism and hotel class. It is intended to reveal the design of students’ writing project

both the form(s) and challenge(s). This study is a qualitative one. It obtains its data based upon the interview

with teachers from the tourism department of three primary vocational schools in North Sulawesi

representing three municipalities, namely Minahasa, Tomohon, and Manado. There are two teachers from

each school and treated as respondents. These schools are selected based on the assumption that they allow

more English-related subjects in the curriculum and prepare job-related skills today. The data are coded in

the way of the grounded theory as it undergoes open, axial; and selective coding. The findings indicate that

writing project in the vocational schools is ‘attached to the activity of tourism object presentation,

destination web-design, and tour promotion. However, the practice of the writing projects is challenged by

several factors such as teachers’ competence, students’ motivation, local government support, and limited

collaboration and partnership. These findings recommend the importance of formulating an appropriate

writing project design at Vocational school in North Sulawesi and overcoming the obstacles that affect the

achieving of objectives of improving the capacity and competence of labour force in Indonesia as well as

empowering human capital for sustainable 4.0 Industry.

1 INTRODUCTION

Vocational school is designed to meet the challenge

of young job seekers. It is viewed as “the accurate

opportunities for job or career”[ Samsudi et al.

2016]. In its purpose of establishment, vocational

school is targeted to equip students, who are seen as

potential youth going into job markets, with the

skills and knowledge demanded in the work field. It

is within this context that vocational school gains a

crucial attribute in educational and labour

preparation.

Tushar argued that vocational school could be

regarded as “a passport for better employment

opportunities”[ Agrawal., 2013]. It indicates that the

existence of vocational school defines the readiness

of young people to enter the need of enterprises and

industry. The vocational school is further perceived

as an arena for transmitting skills and knowledge,

not only for the aim of supplying employment

opportunities but also at the efforts to push

productivity in the business society. It constitutes

“indispensable instrument for improving labour

mobility, adaptability and productivity”[ Agrawal.,

2013]. In other words, the vocational school

determines the quality of the workforce. It shapes

the competence to work, to adjust work condition

and to accelerate productivity.

Thus, it is not excessive to acknowledge a

vocational school as an effective instrument for

productivity and sustaining improvement”[ Subekti,

S. ,2019]. As it is summarized in the following

vocational school roles; 1) providing skills required

by enterprises and across the national economy, 2)

supporting pathways into employment, 3)

strengthening mobility between occupations, and 4)

supporting the development of new skill. These

contributive roles pose indispensable and un-

ignorable stance of vocational school in work

opportunities and growth. It becomes “a critical

driving force”[ Subekti, S. 2019]. It generates and

energizes the endeavour to prepare and equip new

force for labour and technology change as well as a

sustainable industry.

Maru, M.

Students’ Writing Project in Vocational Schools in North Sulawesi: Design and Challenges.

DOI: 10.5220/0010035800002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 111-116

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

111

In relevance to the current 4.0 industry

challenges, It is apparent that vocational schools

produce and empower skilled human resources;

human capital, to fulfil the requirement of 4.0

industry. It guarantees the availability of human

capital facing the rapid development and challenges

of technology and commercialization in this era. The

vocational school seemingly promises and clears the

ways to the creativity and innovation applied in the

job market nowadays. One of the prerequisites to be

involved in the labor of 4.0 industry is the quality of

the human capital in terms of capability and

competence suitable with the demand of 4.0 industry

[ADB, 2014]. This implies that the vocational school

foreshadows the supply and demand of current

industry labour. For that reason, the government

takes pivotal steps by encouraging vocational

schools to act as a primary process capitalized to

cope with labour needs amidst fast technology

development and competitive 4.0 industry. Hence

the vocational school is desired to plan and prioritize

education and training to encounter the skill

mismatch among job seekers and job markets.

However, this vital role and contribution of

vocational schools are distracted by some realities.

Economic indicators reflect the irrelevance of

vocational school training; misconnection between

demands and supply as traced by “employment

complaints and low rate employment’ [ Wibowo, A,

et al, 2018]. In addition, it is still found the gap skill

and low labour productivity [ Subekti, S. 2019]. The

other issue is related to the failure of vocational

school boost the entrepreneurship character among

graduates. Indonesia, as the fourth largest population

in the world, has very few entrepreneurs. It remains

far from the four percent target of government [

Habulembe, S. H. 2007]. In light of Asian economic

challenges in recent years, many of which are labour

market related[ Subekti, S. 2019]. These factors

imply that there is a gap between hope and

expectation; plan and reality, in revitalizing and

emphasizing the role of vocational schools in

Indonesia.

This suggests the necessity to reevaluate the

process and product in the vocational school. It

emerges the need to review some relevant aspects

such as competence making, measurement, method

and strategy of learning, material and system

evaluation (ADB, 2014). Hence, this research paper

reports the investigation of the learning process at

the vocational schools in North Sulawesi by

focusing on three leading vocational schools

representing three municipalities namely Minahasa,

Tomohon and Manado that have tourism

department. The underlying assumption for carrying

out this study is that thought if there are still found

the mismatch between graduates and job markets,

there must be something urgently checked in the

learning process. This study concentrates upon

writing project assignment in the vocational school

due to the reason that writing skill is one of the most

used skills in the workplace (Ratna). The writing

project refers to students’ working as individual and

groups to brainstorm, draft, revise until the final

product was produced” (Ratnasari, N. et.al. 2018).

This study aims at revealing the design of the

projects and their possible challenges within the

context of equipping students for the job market in

the era of sustainable 4.0 industry.

2 METHOD

This study is a qualitative one. It obtains its data

based upon the interview with teachers from the

tourism department of three leading vocational

schools in North Sulawesi representing three

municipalities, namely Minahasa, Tomohon, and

Manado. There are two teachers from each school

and treated as respondents. These schools are

selected based on the assumption that they allow

more English-related subjects in the curriculum and

prepare job-related skills today. The data are coded

in the way of the grounded theory as it undergoes

open, axial; and selective coding.

3 FINDINGS

Teaching writing is always challenging in the EFL

context. It is not plain work to do. Since writing

involves grammatical, rhetorical, conceptual and

judgemental elements (Lee, H. 2017), its teaching

obliges a comprehensive method to be applied. It is

not sufficient for teachers only explaining

grammatical and structural rules of a text, and then

suggesting students to follow it. It was adapting to

the trait of the vocational school that is targeting the

making of a particular skill relevant to a particular

work field. It is found that writing project

assignment at the vocational schools in North

Sulawesi is designed and implemented in several

ways and faces several challenges in acquiring a

maximum impact.

ICVHE 2019 - The International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE) “Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable

4.0 Industry”

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3.1 Design

3.1.1 Tourism Object Presentation Project

Writing project is attached to the English subject. It

implies that a teacher needs to make use of time

allocated for English in an attempt to engage

students with writing skill activity. “It is not

specifically writing class, but we try to find a hole

for it in the schedule” (Teacher 2). These words

confirm that the chipping in writing activities

entirely depends on teachers’ strategy in utilizing

time. Assigning students with writing project seems

to be an excellent choice to overcome the limited

time in the classroom. “With limited time, I ask

students to do a project related to their major

(Tourism department) and to writing improvement”

(Teacher 2). This expression illustrates that writing

project linked with tourism object is expected to

facilitate students to actively search-relevant

knowledge and practice their English skill. “I ask

them to work in a group to describe and present

tourism object in North Sulawesi” (teacher 1). It can

be seen from this information that teachers plan their

class activity in consideration of the tourism

department major. They design their learning

process by promoting a project completion, in this

case, local tourism object.

Theoretically, this is a smart effort. According to

Habulembe, writing project “educates the whole

students because it involves the use of cognitive

skill, social skill and independent

learning”(Ratnasari, N. et.al. 2018). In other words,

doing the writing project on tourism object forces

students to research resources connected with the

given or chosen object and incorporate to organize

the knowledge into a description to present. This is

remarkable work and builds communicative skills

related to the tourism industry. Such design of

writing project is also beneficial for it brings

students to the topic they are familiar with. They

may grow their motivation in doing the task and

enriching their knowledge. If it occurs so, the target

of vocational school to link the prospective related

jobs for the graduates will be at reach.

3.1.2 Destination Web Design

The idea of producing graduates that link with the

need of the current 4.0 industry drives the vocational

school teachers to think over an assignment that

allows students to get closer to their coming job

market. Following the tourism object presentation,

the notion of enabling students to accustom to the

competitive and global tourism business has

encouraged vocational school teachers to assign

students with a web design project. “We realize the

rapid progress of tourism business today, look at the

Chinese tourists in Manado, so we push our student

to collaboratively make a web of tourism destination

here” (Teacher 4). The recent visit of Chinese

tourists to North Sulawesi has inspired and opened

the eyes of vocational school teachers particularly

those of tourism department about the urgency of

upgrading the capacity of their graduates by

preparing students with the skill of designing a

tourism destination website project. This project

combines information technology and writing skills.

The writing skill remains necessary for this project

since the features and content of the destination

description should be in understandable and

promoting English words. “The IT knowledge is the

main attribute of this project, but the content is

writing project”(Teacher 4). The combination of

skills defines the working of this project. It allows

students to obtain “learning opportunities inside and

outside the class” ((Suciati, P. 2018)) in order to

develop their skills. The students gains time for

sharing and developing their resources. It builds

their capacity and competence to meet the

increasingly competitive tourism business in

particular and 4.0 industries in general.

This project implies that students begin to be

aware and literate toward the potential of

identification and to take note of specific tourism

destinations in the surroundings. Writing the content

of the website provides students with the

opportunities to explore the information and

description of tourism destination, and experience

the way to address the online global market. Here

lies the difference between doing the tourism object

presentation project and destination website. The

former proposes the possibility of more individual

work and longer content and detail while the latter

offers more group works and combining technical

skills in its completion.

3.1.3 Tour Promotion Writing Project

The interviews with teachers of the vocational

schools also reveal that the other entailing project of

the previously mentioned ones is tour promotion

projects. “ We also give task for students to do tour

promotion project as the part of guiding subject,

write tour promotion and learn to guide” (teacher 3).

These teacher expressions clarify the element of

writing in this task. Although the project does not

explicitly belong to the English subject, it does use

Students’ Writing Project in Vocational Schools in North Sulawesi: Design and Challenges

113

English for its practice. The exercise of designing a

tour promotion includes the process of selecting the

correct and proper grammatical structure and

accurate vocabularies to attract intended consumers.

Further, this tour promotion should be ended

with the activity of guiding, which prescribes the

need of speaking skill. Hence, in doing the project,

students are building their communicative skills,

both written and oral. It characterizes a project work

which deals with “mixed abilities and skills

activities(Ratnasari, N. et.al. 2018).

The tour promotion project provides

opportunities for students to learn to negotiate a

business content of tourism activity and to sustain

the continuation of the tourism industry. A tour

promotion contains information about the activities,

attraction and communication. One of the teacher

respondents stated, “By doing so (the project), we

hope our students are ready to involve in tourism

jobs” (teacher 1). The project introduces students

the reality of planning, selecting,

describing/composing, organizing and pricing the

tourism product. Most of these activities denote a

writing skill activity which is concluded by speaking

skill. The completion seemingly promises to shape

the preparation and readiness of the students to enter

the competition within the current tourism industry.

It serves to be the expected outcome of the product

while the intended output is supposed to be the tour

package (s). This means that there is a tendency that

such a project is, in fact, helpful in terms of

improving students’ skill to meet the demand of

their intended job today. It indicates the

implementation of the vocational school target.

3.2 Challenges

The education process in the vocational school

fosters students’ capacity and competence to get

down into the requirement of work vacancies. It

addresses its graduates to directly perform the need

of the industry. In 2016, the Indonesian government,

as commanded by President Joko Widodo declared

the attempt to revitalize the vocational school in

order to “increase the relevance of vocational

education with industry’(Sudartini, S. et al, 2016).

The learning of the vocational school should be

qualified and correspond with the skills required in

production and economic process in the national and

global industry. That reflects the hope that

vocational school can assist the attempt to supply the

stock of qualified national workers amidst the global

job market competition. It may anticipate “the threat

of the invasion of the foreign worker”(Sudartini, S.

et al, 2016). It indicates that a good vocational

school will contribute to national economic

development and reduce poverty since it provides

labour force and enriches them with professional

skills with high income. However, this sublime

target can not be claimed within this time. The

interview with teachers of Vocational School in

North Sulawesi discovers several challenges that

confront the attempt to associate the writing project

with the demand of human capital for sustainable 4.0

industry and other global market.

3.2.1 Lack of Resources

The revitalization of vocational education does not

yet occur in every vocational school. The interviews

with teachers carried out at the three main vocational

schools in North Sulawesi; particularly those have

Tourism department points out that lack of

supporting resources to implement their educational

and training program. One of the teacher

respondents uttered, “We badly need new reference

books, ours are old fashioned, maybe the publishers

do not longer launch relevant books, not to mention

lack of other facilities such as computers” (teacher

1). This portrays the existing condition of the

vocational schools. It is true that this interview also

reveals that the condition of resources and facilities

in the vocational school in Manado is better

compared to the other two. Yet, this still portrays

that the purpose of vocational school to enrich and

improve youth labour seekers with the excellent and

proper skill to enter the job market is questioned.

Teachers’ confessions discarded the potential of

providing such skilled labour.

Further, if teachers are considered as a vital

resource in the process, then, this is also an obstacle

for the production of skilled workers. “In our school,

teachers of the tourism department are very few

having tourism education background.” (teacher 3).

This circumstance affects the quality of the

graduates. Lew Kuan Yee public and policy School

of business confirmed this phenomenon by stating

that Indonesia is facing the shortage of vocational

teachers and lecturers amidst this rapid increase in

the number of job sectors (Ratnasari, N. et.al. 2018).

Guiding students to be skilful workers with limited

knowledge of the target job denies the expectation of

having the competence to compete in the global job

market and industry. Teachers whose crucial role is

to respond toward students’ need and target of

quickly acquiring work (Sudartini, S. et al, 2016)

perform less qualified duty will influence the

employability of the graduates.

ICVHE 2019 - The International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE) “Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable

4.0 Industry”

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3.2.2 Lack of Students’ Motivation

This obstacle can be considered being ironic,

assuming that vocational schools provide more

opportunities to shape the skills required in the

industry. “We saw decreasing student intake in the

last two years. In the learning process, students show

less interest in learning, and they are too busy with

gadget”, complained one of the teacher respondents.

The problem of students’ motivation in vocational

school has been detected for many years. The low

enrollment to the vocational school can be linked to

the perspectives among parents in Indonesia toward

the vocational school graduates having low salaries,

unclear career progress and low academic

capabilities compared to those of university

graduates (Ratnasari, N. et.al. 2018). It is further

worsened by the view that in Indonesia, vocational

education is still considered a second-level

education (Sudartini, S. et al, 2016).

In terms of the learning process, it is apparent

that students are less motivated. As explained

earlier, it is possibly related to related resources.

Although the possibility of teachers’ inability to

engage students with the topic close to their need

can also be predicted as the reason for having less

motivation to learn. Students are usually encouraged

and challenged to learn as it adapts the issue and

knowledge that deeply influence their lives.

Moreover, it is essential to give them spaces to

develop themselves both by knowledge sharing and

practice collaboration in order to arrive at the

expected outcome of vocational education.

3.2.3 Lack of Local Government Attention

and Collaboration

The challenge for the development of Vocational

school in North Sulawesi is the attention of the local

government. “We are rarely involved in local

tourism event”, admitted one of the respondent

teachers. The attention here refers to the willingness

of the local government to involve this tourism

department of the vocational school to participate in

the local tourism event. In Tomohon, for instance, it

has TIFF while in Manado, it has Manado fiesta.

The students with tourism background are supposed

to be part of these events. It requires government’s

touch to stimulate them to develop their skills

relevant to the events. It can also be momentum for

vocational school to display their existence in

supplying labours for the tourism industry. Students

have the session to practice and to exist, including

sustaining 4.0 industries.

On the other side, the vocational school also asks

for assistance in terms of setting up a collaboration

with private sectors and industry. “It will be easier

for us (vocational school) if local government

facilitates cooperation with related parties with our

school” (Teachers 5). This information frames the

notion that the attention required is within the

context of the attempt to incorporate with other

parties that help the learning process of the students

and absorbing the graduates. The involvement of

government in searching and arranging the

collaboration guarantee the credibility and capacity

of the vocational school. Governmental supports and

policies can be the influential supplement for the

bargaining position for vocational schools to initiate

collaborations.

4 CONCLUSION

Vocational school is vital in preparing youth for the

job market. For the tourism department of

Vocational school in North Sulawesi, it is found that

writing projects can be utilized as a learning method

to equip students with job-related skill. As

assignments, the projects are designed to be

connected with tourism object presentation,

destination web-design, and tour promotion.

However, the practice of the writing projects is

challenged by several factors such as teachers’

competence, students’ motivation, local government

support, and limited partnership. These findings

recommend the importance of formulating an

appropriate writing project design at Vocational

school in North Sulawesi and overcoming the

obstacles that affect the achieving of objectives of

improving the capacity and competence of labour

force in Indonesia as well as empowering human

capital for sustainable 4.0 Industry.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to express his gratitude to

DRPM Ristekdikti for financing this research

through PDUPT grant and for the ICVHE

Committee for accepting this research paper to be

presented in this prestigious publisher.

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4.0 Industry”

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