Political paradigms and vocational education policy in Indonesia: a document analysis

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore vocational education as stated in the basic constitution, law, government and ministerial regulations in the Indonesian context. This study aims to outline the Indonesian vocational education paradigm based on regulatory documents.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a qualitative document analysis approach by extracting vocational themes regarding senior high school and higher education from the available documents. The keywords used for document document analysis are education, vocational school and vocational higher education. These words are forced to be used to distinguish the types and levels that exist in Indonesian education.

Findings

The findings of this study identified that the political paradigms of vocational education, such as equality and justice, naming (regulative), purpose and life skills, the curriculum of local cultural value, decentralized authority, link and match and future paradigms are important themes raised in this study. This is a study to explore the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia.

Research limitations/implications

The vocational education policy documents in Indonesia that were analyzed may have been forgotten. As a result, the forgotten documents are not included in the analysis document. Forgotten interpretations and documents are part of the limitations of this research.

Practical implications

It is hoped that the findings of this research will have an impact on improving vocational education policies in Indonesia. This can also be a comparison for other countries in looking at vocational education paradigms and policies. In general, these research findings can help in improving vocational education policies. However, this research still has limitations in terms of the number of documents analyzed.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the promotion and political debate of vocational education nationally and internationally. The study further explores how interest groups are taking a role in achieving Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education policies that are compatible with today’s needs and demands.

Citation

Yasdin, Y. and Muksins, M. (2024), "Political paradigms and vocational education policy in Indonesia: a document analysis", Quality Education for All, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 204-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/QEA-10-2023-0007

Introduction

This study aims to explore vocational education as stated in the basic constitution, law, government and ministerial regulations in the Indonesian context. This study aims to outline the Indonesian vocational education paradigm based on regulatory documents. This study begins by presenting Indonesian vocational education from a geographical, historical, political, cultural and philosophical perspective. It continues by describing vocational education policies in Indonesia and the political impact of vocational education.

Vocational education in Indonesia

Geographically, Indonesia is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia. It is a rich country with natural resources and human resources. It has a wealth of natural resources from the mining, agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and marine sectors. Meanwhile, related to human resources, Indonesia has a large population. The total population in January 2023 was 273.52 million people (Central Bureau Statistics, 2023). This population occupies 38 provinces and 6,000 inhabited islands. This shows Indonesia as a vast and diverse country.

Historically, Indonesia experienced two phases, namely, preindependence and postindependence. In preindependence, Indonesia experienced Dutch and Japanese colonization, whereas in postindependence, Indonesia experienced several phases and regimes, ranging from the old order regime, the new order regime and the current reform or postreform regime. This regime change also brought about political movements in the Indonesian education system, including in Vocational High Schools and Vocational Higher Education.

Politically, regime change contributed a lot to the direction and policy of vocational education that Indonesia needed in that phase, and it can be seen in the regulations and curriculum created. In terms of regulations, Indonesia regulates the education system from many aspects. Regulations are made that are considered appropriate, starting from budgeting to implementation. In terms of curriculum, Indonesia designs learning that can reach all ages and circles. The designed curriculum is also adapted to the conditions in Indonesia. Some call it the Indonesian self-paced curriculum that has local cultural values.

Culturally, Indonesian education is closely related to the cultural resources around it. This can be seen in the provision of subjects that are adapted to the local content and regional languages that exist in a particular area. This is done to bring the community closer to the values of the locality and cultural values of Indonesia. In addition, the laying of wisdom values is also given to students at all levels of education in Indonesia.

Philosophically, giving wisdom values to students describes the laying of the basic value of vocationalization in the lives of students. This implies the mastery of soft skills for Indonesian students and is the foundation for strengthening personal character in interfaith, cultural, ethnic, racial and identity associations. All of these are important because Indonesia has diversity; Indonesia is an archipelagic country and has different patterns of social life based on cultural values. This then interacts with each other in a value system including in the Indonesian education system.

Vocational education policy in Indonesia

This paper seeks to see the Indonesian education system, especially in Vocational High Schools and Vocational Higher Education. The terms vocational and vocational are still used in writing to provide boundaries in accordance with the nomenclature that exists in Indonesia. Maintaining these two terms is part of Indonesia's educational politics.

These restrictions are contained in law number 20 of 2003 concerning the Indonesian education system. Vocational High Schools and Vocational Higher Education aim to develop students' abilities to be able to work in certain fields and the difference is only the level of education. Vocational High Schools are implemented at the secondary education level, Vocational Higher Education is implemented at the higher education level starting from polytechnics to universities. In the implementation of education, local content values are often part of the curriculum in accordance with local regional advantages because Indonesia is a large country so there are many very specific vocational high schools such as Agricultural Vocational Schools, Fisheries Vocational Schools, Maritime Vocational Schools and Vocational Schools in several other specific sectors as part of the paradigm and philosophy of Indonesian vocational education.

Several authors are involved in discussing paradigms both philosophically and definitively. Philosophically, the paradigm is a conceptual framework including ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions to regulate beliefs and inform the design of everything (Basit, 2010). Definitively, some experts also express opinions about paradigms. Banks and Banks (2010) define a paradigm as a device of laws, principles, assumptions, values, beliefs, theories and explanations. The same is also conveyed by Denzin and Lincoln (2008), who consider paradigms to be related to socially constructed values. In this paper, the paradigm in question is a set of rules, principles and legal values that guide the implementation of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education.

The American Vocational Education Association outlines that vocational education is an education designed to develop skills, abilities, understanding, attitudes and work habits (Thompson, 1973). In this regard, vocational education becomes a process of acquiring knowledge of the skills of the working environment (Gough, 2010), the formation of work competencies (Lomovtseva, 2014; Edmon and Oluniyi, 2014), influence on the formation of occupational identity (Brown et al., 2007) and according to the needs of the industry (Zaib and Harun, 2014). From that consideration, it requires the allocation of resources in Vocational High Schools and Vocational Higher Education. This assumption has often been termed the politics of education.

The politics of education, in a very general view, is an attempt to build an open consciousness to think about education (Yamin, 2013). Whatever form of attention to education, it is part of the politics of education (Murtopo, 2014). In a more philosophical and broader context, Rifai (2011) considers that education is impossible without the intervention of power because it concerns the masses. Various interest groups exist in Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education, such as legislative, executive, society, industry, professional associations and mass media. These resources must be aware of their respective roles in the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education.

The politics of education, which is generally directed at liberating society from the forces of globalization, ideological domination and market forces (Zajda and Jaja, 2010), has a very broad study in the social context (Ozurumba and Ebuara, 2014). Therefore, it needs to be limited to simpler scopes, such as the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education.

At the global level, the study of the politics of vocational education focuses on improving vocational education policies and practices. For example, Akpan and Ido (2014) found that policy formulation and implementation influenced vocational education. Similar findings were also found in research on the political theme of vocational education and it became a tough topic of discussion. For example, Spiller (2022) highlights the political performance of education, Ozurumba and Ebuara (2014) investigate the implications of education problems, Richardson (2008) highlights stakeholder support and Chapman (2004) explores education in a political vortex.

Current study

The political study of vocational education in the context of Indonesia is still very limited. From several searches on the politics of vocational education, some writings still focus on the phases and aspects of the history of vocational education in Indonesia (Pambudi and Harjanto, 2020; Ramadhan and Ramdani, 2015; Wilson, 1991; Tilak, 2003), vocational education policy in Indonesia (Yahiji et al., 2019; Ramadhani and Rahayu, 2021; Ariyani et al., 2021) and the challenges of vocational education (Mulyadi and Sumarto, 2009).

The paper does not fully see the politics of vocational education as an allocation of resources based on the principles, values and rules of law that exist in Indonesia. This is important to see because education politics has an impact on the country.

Yang and Seng (2023) provide an illustration that political perspectives provide changes to education in Thailand. In Singapore and Malaysia, educational politics is considered a long-term investment (Rahman and Anis, 2023).

Based on the views in the previous paragraph, this article aims to outline the political paradigm and policy of Indonesian vocational education. The political paradigm and vocational education policy provide the principles, values and rules of vocational education policy. This view can become a reference, basic value and philosophy for making policies and implementing vocational education.

Method

The document analysis method is the method used in this study. Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents, which can be used to provide context, generate questions, supplement other types of research data, track change over time and corroborate other sources (Bowen, 2009). Document analysis is used to analyze laws, government regulations, ministerial regulations and vocational education policies published in Indonesia. All of these documents are very suitable for analysis using qualitative document analysis because of the availability of comprehensive documents so that vocational education paradigms and policies in Indonesia can be found.

The document analysis procedure begins with filtering materials (foundations, laws and basic rules) and then followed by extracting data. Following this, researchers identifies the location of the document and conducts a search through Google according to keywords. Finally, analyzing data and filtering findings. Then it is then explored and interpreted to build and develop the theme of vocational high school and vocational higher education. This procedure was adapted from Dalglish et al. (2020) in Figure 1.

Based on the process of document analysis, the study identified vital resourceful documents. The documents in this research study can be seen in Table 1. Related articles containing the theme of vocational education were identified as many as 58 articles. The number of these articles is very relevant to the theme of the paradigm and vocational education policy in Indonesia.

These 58 articles are a source of information for many researchers to explore the theme of vocational and vocational education in Indonesia. The articles identified are also in accordance with the research objectives in exploring vocational education in Indonesia. Researchers widely and generally use this available document. All data can be accessed through Google by entering the desired keywords. The reason for choosing these sources is due to they are suitable with the aim of the research on exploring paradigm and vocational education policy.

The keywords used in this study are “education”, “vocational” and “vocational”. Especially for the words “vocational” and “vocational”, which have the same interpretation, it is deliberately used in document analysis to show the differentiator of the use of the words “vocational” and “vocational” in the Indonesian education system. The document analysis process in this study has been applied by Dalglish et al. (2020).

Results

This document analysis raises several themes related to the political paradigm and policy of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education. Some of the themes related to the politics of vocational and vocational education present in the document focus on a specific point.

The BCI, BPI, PP60 and PP10 reveal the paradigm of equality and justice. The UU89, PP90, UU03 and PP10 reveal the paradigm naming/regulative. The PP90, PP05, PP10 and PM17 reveal the paradigm of purpose and life skills. The UU03, PP05, PP10 and PM17 reveal the paradigm of the curriculum of local cultural values. The PP90, PP05, PP10 and PM17 reveal the paradigm of decentralization of authority. The PP90 and PM17 reveal the link and match paradigm. The RS24 reveals the paradigm of the future (Figure 2).

Paradigm of equality and justice

At the heart of the politics of equality and justice in vocational education is the ease of accessing quality education. Ease of accessing education regardless of ethnicity, religion, race and class. The provision of quality education for Indonesian citizens is part of the fulfillment of rights. The fulfillment of the rights of citizens is clearly regulated in the 1945 Constitution.

Every citizen is entitled to instruction (BCI A31 V1).

Right to education, the 1945 Constitution affirms that citizens have the same rights. The regulation of Indonesian citizens' rights in education is not simply liberated. In this case, the state (Indonesia) remains present to regulate the course of granting citizens' rights through state rules and government systems. This can be seen in the further explanation of the 1945 Constitution.

The government strives and organizes a national teaching system, which is regulated by law (BCI A31 V2).

If you look at the quote above, it is clearly illustrated that the government is trying to create an education system and policies that are regulated by laws and regulations. The policy of providing education is intended to provide justice for all citizens. This is also used as a constitutional basis in the management of Indonesian national education. This can be seen in Pancasila, especially the fifth precept.

Social justice for all Indonesians (BPI).

The fifth precept of Pancasila clearly shows that the orientation of the state's presence in managing education is to create social justice not just in the process of granting rights in education but more than that. After receiving an education, citizens are also expected to contribute to other citizens. From this, social justice is no longer simply interpreted as the fulfillment of rights but has also become a form of implementing the obligations of citizens.

As evidence, it can be seen at the beginning of the independence of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945. The Indonesian Government provides justice to Indonesian independence fighters. Constitutionally, the Government of Indonesia accommodates fighters to receive a proper education.

To a Veteran of the Freedom Fighters of the Republic of Indonesia who does not have a job because he does not have any skills/skills can be given the opportunity to take part in vocational education and/or training - work in selected institutions/four-place Job Training held domestically, or outside the country (PP60 A1 V1).

As well as vocational education, equality and justice continue to be developed in a broader direction. In the days of Indonesian independence, various rules have been developed that regulate the specifics of the education of citizens, no longer just regulating the education of warrior veterans. The provision of skills has been extended to various circles. The accessibility of education can be seen through the provision of skills through equality education to out-of-school communities, people with special needs and young people.

For equality, education is given from primary education to secondary education. This can be seen in government regulations.

Equality education is a non-formal education program that organizes general education equivalent to elementary school/MA (basic education), junior high school/MTs (junior high education), and high school/MA (upper secondary education), which includes Package A, Package B, and Package C programs as well as vocational education equivalent to SMK/MAK in the form of Vocational Package C (PP10 A114 V1).

For out-of-school communities, it is realized through the Package Program (Package A, Package B, and Package C). The program is available at all levels and types of education, specifically for the development of competencies related to vocational education; it is in the C package program. Students of the Vocational Package C program are members of the community who take vocational secondary education through nonformal education channels (PP10 A114 V8; PP10 A114 V10; PP10 A114 V11).

For people with special needs, the government also provides the special treatment. It is also regulated in laws and regulations. It can be observed that people with special needs are also given a decent place in education. This demonstrates the principle of equality and justice embodied in education. The implementation of special education can be carried out through special education units, general education units, vocational education units and/or religious education units (PP10 A130 V2; PP10 A133 V3).

To realize equality and justice, Indonesian education is also slowly touching citizens with age in mind. Indonesia pays special attention to youth groups. They are mediated through regulations in order to get a decent education and adequate skills. In fact, specifically, they are expected to experience an increase in knowledge and skills. Functional skills, as referred to, include vocational skills, managerial skills, communication skills and/or social skills (PP10 A113 V3; PP10 A110 V2PF).

The provision of skills to community groups and youth groups is carried out as optimally as possible. It can be interpreted that Indonesian education also has a tendency to develop vocational education in the principles of equality and equality. The development of vocational education is an effort to create justice not only in the community but also in the school environment. Equal education across borders (Thomson et al., 2022) and, specifically, vocational education will promote social equality (Carstensen and Ibsen, 2021).

Naming paradigm (regulative)

The naming (regulative) paradigm is a political paradigm of vocational education that aims to distinguish the name from the Indonesian education system. Indonesian education is generally regulated into pathways, levels and types. The existing nomenclature, it shows that the Indonesian education path consists of formal, informal and nonformal pathways. The formal path is education taken through schools:

The formal education level consists of basic education, secondary education, and higher education (UU03 A14).

From the above article, it is clear that the tier consists of three. The three levels of formal education are primary education, secondary education and higher education. Meanwhile, the informal flow is an education taken from the family path. The nonformal path is an education taken from education, training and courses. From the educational path, vocational education is in formal education, although some conduct vocational training through nonformal education. The pathways, levels and types of education can be realized in the form of educational units organized by the government, local government and/or the community (UU03 A16; UU89 A11 V1).

According to the article, the level of education in Indonesia consists of basic education, secondary education and higher education. Indonesian vocational education is in secondary and higher education. Secondary education consists of general education, vocational education, extraordinary education, official education and religious education (UU89 A15 V2; PP90 A4 V2P2; UU03 A18 V2).

The articles in government regulations and laws, vocational education at the secondary education level is named vocational high school. Secondary education is in the form of High School (SMA), Madrasah Aliyah (MA), Vocational High School (SMK) and Madrasah Aliyah Vocational (MAK), or other equivalent forms (UU03 A18 V3; PP10 A1 V12).

Meanwhile, vocational education at the higher education level is called vocational education. In higher education, Indonesian vocational education is in polytechnics, colleges, institutes and universities. The four types of vocational education in higher education get authority through existing regulations in Indonesia:

Polytechnic is a college that organizes vocational education in a number of specialized fields of knowledge (PP10 A1 V18).

A college is a college that organizes academic and/or vocational education within the scope of one particular discipline and, if qualified, can organize professional education (PP10 A1 V19).

An institute is a college that organizes academic education and/or vocational education in a group of disciplines of science, technology, and/or art and, if qualified, can organize professional education (PP10 A1 V20).

A university is a college that organizes academic education and/or vocational education in a number of sciences, technologies, and/or arts and, if qualified can organize professional education (PP10 A1 V21).

Meanwhile, from the type of education, Indonesian education is divided into several groups. It is also stated in regulations related to the Indonesian education system. Types of education include general, vocational, academic, professional, vocational, religious and special education (UU03 A15). Vocational education is education that prepares students to be able to work in a certain field (UU89 A11 V3). Universities can organize academic, professional and/or vocational programs (UU03 A20 V3). Universities that meet the requirements of establishment and are declared entitled to organize certain educational programs can award academic, professional or vocational degrees in accordance with the educational program they organize (UU03 A21 V1).

Based on aspects of path, type and level, vocational education in Indonesia gave rise to naming politics. This is illustrated in the definition of vocational education at the secondary and higher education levels. It can be seen that the politics of naming is only to appear merely to divide secondary education and higher education. If it speaks of secondary education, then it is vocational education. Meanwhile, in higher education, vocational education is called. This is what is referred to as naming politics (PP10 A1 V15; PP10 A1 V16; PP10 A85 V1; PP10 A85 V3PA).

The emphasis on naming Indonesian vocational education is more to distinguish the implementation of education. Education at the secondary level is named vocational education, whereas for higher education, it is named vocational education. This can be interpreted as the politics of naming or strengthening identity. This naming is further used differently in this paper to provide a superior between vocational education at the secondary education level and vocational education at the higher education level. The political purpose of naming is to create memories (Basik, 2022; Brocket, 2021) and the process of identity inheritance (Houssay-Holzschuch and Giraut, 2022). This research also found the same thing.

Paradigms of purpose and life skills

Paradigm aims to explain the objectives of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education Indonesia. Although they have different naming at the same level, Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education are still interpreted to have the same goal. Both are expected to produce graduates who can work in certain fields and levels of work:

Vocational secondary education is education at the secondary education level that prioritizes the development of students' ability to carry out certain types of work (PP90 A1 V3).

Vocational secondary education prioritizes preparing students to enter the workforce and developing professional attitudes (PP90 A3 V2).

In order to prepare vocational high school students to become workers, vocational high schools can be established production units that operate professionally (PP90 A29 V2).

From the article above, to support the mastery of the intended professional skills, Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia require special standards. The specific standards required are in accordance with the needs of the industry:

Vocational High School, hereinafter abbreviated as SMK, is a vocational secondary education directed at mastering certain applied skills in the field of Industry (PM17 A1 V4).

The competency standards of graduates in vocational secondary education units aim to improve intelligence, knowledge, personality, noble character, as well as skills to live independently and attend further education in accordance with their vocational (PP05 A26 V3).

Not only dominant in the hard skill aspects of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education, Indonesia also emphasizes mastery of soft skills. Even the mastery of soft skills is the main thing mandated by the education system of Indonesia. This is done to distinguish the Indonesian education system from the vocational education system in other countries:

Secondary vocational education serves: enhance, internalize, and practice the values of faith, noble character, and noble personality; improving, living, and practicing the values of nationality and love for the motherland; equip students with science and technology skills as well as vocational skills of professions in accordance with the needs of society; increase sensitivity and ability to appreciate and express beauty, subtlety, and harmony; channeling talents and abilities in the field of sports, both for health and physical fitness and achievement; and improve physical and mental readiness to live independently in the community and/or continuing education to the higher education level (PP10 A76 V2).

From mastering soft skills, vocational education in several fields is expected to become life skills education. The emphasis on life skills is illustrated through vocational education, which takes place on nonformal educational pathways, namely, through certain education, courses and training:

Life skills education is an educational program that prepares non-formal education students with personal skills, social skills, aesthetic skills, kinesthetic skills, intellectual skills, and vocational skills needed to work, try, and/or live independently in the community (PP10 A108 V1).

Life skills education aims to improve personal skills, social skills, aesthetic skills, kinesthetic skills, intellectual skills, and vocational skills to prepare students to be able to work, try, and/or live independently in the community (PP10 A108 V2).

The implementation of achieving this goal is then implemented in the Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education Indonesia curriculum. Implementation of mastery of hard skills and soft skills (Shakespeare et al., 2007; Riyanti et al., 2017; Khilji and Roberts, 2022) will further become the focus of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia. This is the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education is referred to as the curriculum paradigm.

Curriculum paradigm of local cultural value

The curriculum paradigm of local cultural value in the policy of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia is intended to facilitate the mastery of hard skills and the development of soft skills. This curriculum is an obligation in the Indonesian education system:

The primary and secondary education curriculum must contain skills/vocational (UU03 A37 V1PI).

The curriculum for general, vocational, and special types of education at the primary and secondary education levels consists of 1) groups of religious subjects and noble morals; 2) groups of citizenship and personality subjects; 3) science and technology subject groups; 4) groups of aesthetic subjects; 5) physical, sports, and health subject group (PP05 A6 V1).

This paradigm is further legalized in a variety of regulations, not only in simple regulations but also in the complex legality of other regulations. The preparation of the curriculum is based on competency standards that apply in the industry and apply globally. Not only that, but the preparation of the curriculum also considers specific standards:

The educational curriculum in each expertise program at SMK is prepared competency-based, referring to the SKKNI in the field of industry, international standards, and/or special standards (PM17 A4 V1).

Although globally oriented, Indonesia's Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education curriculum still maintains local characteristics. The Indonesian curriculum is adapted to the local basis of excellence. This is because Indonesia has a very large area and a variety of cultural patterns, tribes, religions, races and groups. The typology of each region in Indonesia also varies. This can be both a capital and a challenge:

Primary and secondary education units developed into local excellence-based must be enriched with vocational education content related to local economic, social, and/or cultural potential, which is a regional competitive and/or comparative advantage (PP10 A157 V2).

To facilitate the preparation of the curriculum, several interest groups are involved in it, starting from industry, companies and professional associations that are involved. This is done to strengthen curriculum support during curriculum implementation:

The preparation of the curricula, as referred to in paragraph (l), is carried out by involving industrial associations, industrial companies, and/or industrial estate companies (PM17 A4 V2).

Industry support can continue and not stop at just the preparation of the curriculum. But it also continues to support the sustainability of the curriculum through curriculum implementation. In the aspect of formal legality, industry and vocational education in Indonesia can be mandated to build partnerships through various programs such as industry practices and internships:

The practice of working in the industry is the practice of working in the industrial industry and/or the establishment of the industry as part of the vocational education curriculum in order to master skills or expertise in the field of industry (PM17 A1 V10).

Practicing working in the industry and industrial internship in accordance with the level of qualifications and competencies to be achieved (PM17 A10 V2).

In the process of industry partnership with Vocational High Schools and Vocational Higher Education, there are several rules that must be met. The rules contain several agreements that are more likely to bind the industry as part of the public and private parties:

The industry must provide teaching factories, workshops, and laboratories as a place for industrial work practices and internships; and instructors as supervisors (PM17 A10 V3).

If you look at the curriculum process in Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education Indonesia, it requires a large budget. There needs to be strong support from all interest groups, including local cultural value support (Squire et al., 2003; Li and Chen (2017); and Budiastra et al., 2021) such as the attitude and cooperation. This is inseparable from the principle of vocational education, which does require high costs. To finance vocational and vocational education, Indonesia uses the paradigm of centralizing authority in Indonesian vocational education politics.

Decentralization of authority paradigm

The decentralization of authority in Indonesian vocational education politics was initiated by the Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education order. In the order, there are conditions that must be met for Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education to be optimized. The picture can be seen in the regulations:

The establishment of secondary schools organized by the government and the community must meet the requirements of availability: at least twenty people for public, vocational, and official high schools, ten people for religious high schools, and five people for extraordinary high schools (PP90 A6 V1P1).

In the regulation, several groups can play a role in Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education. Some of the groups mentioned in the regulation are governments and communities. The intended government is the executive and legislature, which at some levels have different sections. That authority must even be delegated to the lower levels:

The district/city government guarantees the implementation of special education in general education units and vocational education units in accordance with the needs of students (PP10 A131 V2).

In addition to the government, authority is also given to other groups, namely, the community. The intended society is not only the public in general but also professional associations and industry groups. This group also has authority in Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education:

Professional organizations can participate in education by providing consideration of the curriculum of relevant vocational or vocational study programs (PP10 A188 V5PC).

Industrial companies and/or companies facilitating industrial work practices for students and teacher apprenticeships for teachers in productive fields of study (PM17 A10 V1).

Industrial companies and industrial companies provide certificates to students and teachers of productive fields of study who have completed industrial work and industrial internships (PM17 A10 V4).

Other groups that are given authority in Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education are schools and colleges with all the parts in them. Educators who are part of the existing education system in schools and colleges also get authority from existing regulations:

Educators at Vocational High Schools/Vocational Aliyah Madrasah or other equivalent forms consist of subject teachers and vocational field instructors whose assignments are determined by each education unit according to needs (PP05 A30 V5).

A number of articles sort out and provide clues related to the delegation of resource authority in the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education. This is done to create effectiveness (Lyons, 2016) and efficiency (Colombo and Delmastro, 2004) in vocational education. Another goal is to create trust between interest groups (Somek, 2015). The findings of this research are closely related to these previous findings.

Link and match paradigm

The political paradigm of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia is also based on the link-and-match paradigm. This paradigm is not only to create jobs but also to fill the jobs available in the industrial world. This link and match is based on community support for Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education:

The establishment of vocational high schools in addition to the requirements for the availability of potential employment and community support, including the business/industrial world (PP90 A7).

Link and match is a form of development of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education which is expected to produce a competent workforce. In addition, it is also adjusted to the needs of the industry:

The expertise program at SMK is tailored to the needs of the industry (PM17 A1 V4).

Vocational secondary high schools in building and organizing competency-based vocational education that links and matches with industry; and companies in localised industry parks to facilitate the development of vocational high schools to produce a competent Industrial workforce (PM17 A2).

From the explanation above, the link and match paradigm is intended to fill and create jobs. Link and match between Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education and industry is needed (Azman et al., 2020; Ali et al., 2020; Sofyawati et al., 2022; and Yoto et al., 2022). These findings certainly strengthen the link and match policy of vocational education.

Link and match must consider the location aspect and the time aspect. The location aspect is related to where skills and competencies are needed. In contrast, the time aspect is when those skills and competencies are needed. This is important so that there is no oversupply in the future.

Future paradigms

The Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education paradigm before revitalization emphasized the learning process both in Vocational Higher Education (PTV), Vocational High Schools (SMK) and courses and training that require students to take competency tests organized by the Competency Certification Institute (LSK) or Professional Certification Institute (LSP) to get a certificate competence. Only a small percentage of education units know the needs of the industry and respond to the market needs for the required competencies (RS24 BI BD).

However, the paradigm currently has shifted with a comprehensive change from upstream to downstream in the vocational education system. The entire education system, including educational institutions, curriculum, educators (teachers/lecturers/instructors), supporting facilities and infrastructure and students both at the SMK level, Vocational Colleges and course/training institutions, must carry out adjustments to the needs of the world of work as users of the competencies of vocational education graduates (RS24 BI BD).

In addition, competency certification for graduates is provided by certification bodies or vocational education institutions (SMK, Vocational Colleges and course institutions) that are aligned with the industry. Because the certification provided has received recognition from industry partners, vocational education graduates are expected to be able to work directly accepted in the business world, the industrial world and the world of work (RS24 BI BD).

Vocational education policy

From all these considerations, vocational education and vocational higher education have undergone revitalization. The policy direction of revitalizing vocational higher education is part of the government's strategic plan:

• It needs efforts to encourage industries in industrial estates to collaborate with educational institutions, especially vocational education, MSME players to build a synergy of national strength.

• The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology is requested to increase synergy between higher education institutions and the industrial world for the development of work-ready human resources by opening up as many internship opportunities as possible for at least one semester for students.

• Development by involving industry players and industry practitioners must be facilitated in the learning system, including by increasing the weight of learning credits obtained from industry practitioners.

• Mentors from industry players, internships in the industry and even industry personnel on campus must be added and invite practitioner organizations.

• Invite the industry to educate with the industrial curriculum, not with the lecturer curriculum (RS24 BIII BA).

While SMK is also strengthened through the “SMK Center of Excellence Program”, a vocational development program with certain expertise competencies in improving quality and performance, which is strengthened through partnership and alignment with the world of work, which eventually becomes a reference SMK that can function as a driving school and a center for improving the quality and performance of other vocational school, in addition, there is a mentoring program designed to assist SMK PK in achieving output. The implementation of assistance is carried out by universities that have met the criteria. SMK PK is one of the priority programs of the Directorate General of Vocational Education. The SMK PK program is a school transformation program carried out by increasing the capacity of principals in realizing link and match (RS24 BIII BA).

The process of strengthening vocational education is an effort to strengthen human resources in the future. Vocational education as part of the education system must be adaptable to the future (Tessaring and Wannan, 2004) and stand on the lessons of the past (Psacharopoulos (1997). The challenges of vocational education in the future are increasingly complex (Pilz, 2012).

Implication and limitation

It is hoped that the findings of this research will have an impact on improving vocational education policies in Indonesia. This can also be a comparison for other countries in looking at vocational education paradigms and policies. In general, these research findings can help in improving vocational education policies. However, this research still has limitations in terms of the number of documents analyzed.

The vocational education policy documents in Indonesia that were analyzed may have been forgotten. As a result, the forgotten documents are not included in the analysis document. Forgotten interpretations and documents are part of the limitations of this research.

Conclusion

The politics of Indonesian vocational education has been embedded as values, principles and rules in the rules and policies of the Indonesian education system. This can be seen in the paradigm of equality and justice, the paradigm of naming/regulative, the paradigm of purpose and life skills, the paradigm of the curriculum of local cultural value, the paradigm of decentralization of authority, the link and match paradigm and the future paradigm.

The more interest groups that apply the political paradigm of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education, the potential for the fulfillment of skilled labor is more possible. The fulfillment of skilled labor is a problem of unemployment and link and match that has always been a problem in vocational education.

This document analysis includes the integration of local cultural values into the political paradigm of vocational education. As a result, the value and political research of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education can be further studied in a larger scope. This paper recommends an in-depth investigation of the role of interest groups in vocational and vocational education systems such as legislative, executive, society, industry, mass media and other interest groups. In addition, this research could be expanded to a greater extent on the politics of vocational and vocational education in general.

Figures

Figure 1.

Process document analysis in this research

Figure 2.

Political paradigm and vocational education policy in Indonesia

Table 1.

Vocational education

No.	Document	Subsections	Abbreviation
1	Constitution of 1945	Article 31, paragraph 1 Article 31, paragraph 2	BCI A31 V1 BCI A31 V2 BCI
2	Pancasila	Precepts 1–5	BPI
3	Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 5 of 1960 concerning Vocational Education and/or Job Training	Article 1, paragraph 1	PP60 A1 V1 PP60
4	Law Number 2 of 1989 concerning the National Education System	Article 11, paragraph 1 Article 11, paragraph 3 Article 15, paragraph 2	UU89 A11 V1 UU89 A11 V3 UU89 A15 V2 UU89
5	Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia of 1990 concerning Secondary Education	Article 1, paragraph 3 Article 3, paragraph 2 Article 6 paragraph 1, point 1 Article 7 Article 29, paragraph 2	PP90 A1 V3 PP90 A3 V2 PP90 A6 V1P1 PP90 A7 PP90 A29 V2 PP90
6	Law Number 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System	Article 14 Article 15 Article 16 Article 18, paragraph 2 Article 18, paragraph 3 Article 20, paragraph 3 Article 21, paragraph 1 Article 37, paragraph 1 point i	UU03 A14 UU03 A15 UU03 A16 UU03 A18 V2 UU03 A18 V3 UU03 A20 V3 UU03 A21 V1 UU03 A37 V1PI UU03
7	Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 19 of 2005 concerning National Education Standards	Article 6, paragraph 1 Article 26, paragraph 3 Article 30, paragraph 5	PP05 A6 V1 PP05 A26 V3 PP05 A30 V5 PP05
8	Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Year 2010 concerning the Management and Implementation of Education	Article 1, paragraph 12 Article 1, paragraph 15 Article 1, paragraph 16 Article 1, paragraph 18 Article 1, paragraph 19 Article 1, paragraph 20 Article 1, paragraph 21 Article 76 paragraph 2 Article 85, paragraph 1 Article 85, paragraph 3, point a Article 108, paragraph 1 Article 108, paragraph 2 Article 110, paragraph 2, point f Article 113, paragraph 3 Article 114, paragraph 1 Article 114, paragraph 8 Article 114, paragraph 10 Article 114, paragraph 11 Article 130, paragraph 2 Article 131, paragraph 2 Article 133, paragraph 3 Article 157, paragraph 2 Article 188, paragraph 5 point c	PP10 A1 V12 PP10 A1 V15 PP10 A1 V16 PP10 A1 V18 PP10 A1 V19 PP10 A1 V20 PP10 A1 V21 PP10 A76 V2 PP10 A85 V1 PP10 A85 V3PA PP10 A108 V1 PP10 A108 V2 PP10 A110 V2PF PP10 A113 V3 PP10 A114 V1 PP10 A114 V8 PP10 A114 V10 PP10 A114 V11 PP10 A130 V2 PP10 A131 V2 PP10 A133 V3 PP10 A157 V2 PP10 A188 V5PC PP10
9	Regulation of the Minister of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia Number 03 of 2017 concerning Guidelines for The Development and Development of Competency-Based Vocational High Schools that Link and Match with Industry	Article 1, paragraph 4 Article 1, paragraph 10 Article 2 Article 4, verse 1 Article 4, paragraph 2 Article 10, paragraph 1 Article 10, paragraph 2 Article 10, paragraph 3 Article 10, paragraph 4	PM17 A1 V4 PM17 A1 V10 PM17 A2 PM17 A4 V1 PM17 A4 V2 PM17 A10 V1 PM17 A10 V2 PM17 A10 V3 PM17 A10 V4 PM17
10	Strategic Plan of the Directorate General of Vocational Education for 2020–2024	CHAPTER I part D CHAPTER III part A	RS24 BI BD RS24 BIII BA RS24

Source: Adapted by regulation