This study explores the relevance of vocational school (VS) and industries to meet the needs of industries in order to get quality workers from VS. Therefore, the government of Indonesia stresses to strengthen vocational school (VS) through training both in school, company, or in technopark in order that the graduate of VS may have better competence and skill. Quantitative and qualitative of the secondary data, the in-depth interview during the focus group discussion (FGD), and survey data was collected from 536 respondents from 36 VS in eight provinces. Analysis was the combination of qualitative and quantitative from both survey and document triangulated with interview of other related resource persons. The findings reveal that the relevance of training in school and the needs of the industries is 91,67% relevant, the relevance of knowledge and the needs of industries taught in school is 93.34% relevant, skill 93.34%, and attitude 97.5%. Teachers perceptions for the three aspects is 90.83%. Most of the VS school programs are in accordance to meet the needs of industries, which have been working collabotively with schools. Training in both industries and technopark has improved VS students and teachers’ competence and skill. However, it is different with the reality that most of vocational school graduates have not been accepted by private sector or industries to work at their company due to the lack of several aspects, such as the skills which does not occur to the work of industries.
Keywords: Knowledge, Relevance, Skill, attitude, kompetence, technopark, vocational school
