Start from the end. According to Wikan Sakarinto, M.Sc., PhD., Director General of Vocational Education (Dirjen Diksi) of the Ministry of Education and Culture this mindset needs to be built in vocational education during his presentation on the national webinar AGROFEST (Agroindustry for Science, Education & Technology) organized by Himagrin, UPI Agroindustrial Technology Education Study Program (29/11/20).

"The Director-General of Vocational Education which covers the Directorate of Vocational and Professional Higher Education (Polytechnics, Universities, Institutes that have vocational study programs D1, D2, D3, D4, S2T, S3T), the Directorate of Vocational Schools, the Directorate of courses and training. It is established to not only distribute grants or licensing programs of study, or issuing diplomas. Vocational education has two main objectives, namely: 1) to produce competent, skilled, and outstanding human resources following the needs of IDUKA (industry and workforce); 2) produce tangible products from the results of applied research that are released to the market or society. This is the start from the end," stated Wikan.

According to the Director-General of Vocational Education HR competencies are not just hard skills, because it turns out that IDUKA's complaints are related to aspects of soft skills and characters. The following are complaints from users of labour against college graduates, including 1) less resistant to pressure in the workforce; 2) less collaborative skills; 3) lack of initiative and easily get bored; 4) not able to communicate well both orally and in writing. However, it does not mean that hard skills are not important. The GPA as a student's cumulative grade point average should be relatively high to be selected in the labour selection interview process.

In the AGROFEST webinar, hosted by Prof. Dr Masriam Bukit, Director General of Dictions explained that the Link and Match policy or "marriage" is a strategy to achieve two main goals of vocational education, namely to produce competent human resources and produce real products.

In the AGROFEST national webinar which was attended by more than 400 participants (students, vocational teachers, lecturers from various institutions in Indonesia), Wikan explained that the characteristics have been linked and have matched as a target that became the output & outcome of vocational education. These characteristics include: 1) graduates who are competent and skilled so that they are ready to work or continue their studies or become tough entrepreneurs; 2) adaptive, agile, flexible curriculum; 3) project-based learning from the industry; 4) applied research; 5) teaching factory/industry.

These competent graduates must have hard skills competencies (relatively high GPA, competency certificates), soft skills (communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, English skills presentation, creativity), integrity (honest, hard work, sincere gratitude, inspiring, Love Indonesia). All of these competencies must be accommodated by the curriculum.

Project-based learning (PjBL) from industry is a challenge because there are still misconceptions about project understanding where the project in question is not just making a product in practice and then throwing it away, but a useful project according to industry needs. This is an implementation of the start from the end mindset. Students are given a stimulus or facilitated to communicate, collaborate with industry to carry out a project that is performed jointly in a team for a certain period with the guidance of several lecturers. The success of the project is decided by the industry. This is also an example of adaptive, agile, and flexible curriculum implementation.

At the AGROFEST national webinar which was also attended by UPI leaders, FPTK leaders as well as department heads, study program heads within the UPI FPTK, Wikan reiterated the importance of the start from the end mindset.

 Adapted from: http://agroindustri.upi.edu/dirjen-diksi-start-from-the-end/