Best Paper from IDF 2019: Dyah Pritadrajati Emphasized that Investment for Women eans Investment for the Entire Nation

Dyah Pritadrajati at Innovate Session entitled "Reforming the Vocational Education and Training (TVET) System for Future Job".

The winner of the Best Paper in the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2019, Dyah Pritadrajati encouraged the government to invest more in women, including in the field of vocational education.  The presentation delivered by Dyah was part of Sub-theme 2, Reforming the Vocational Education and Training System (TVET) for Future Jobs. 

"In my research, it was found that women who attend vocational schools give higher outcomes than those who attend public schools," said Dyah Pritadrajati, researcher from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). 

Dyah's research, which received an award from the Minister of National Development Planning / Head of Bappenas, Bambang Brodjonegoro, was titled "From School to Work: Does Vocational Education Improve Labor Market Outcomes? An Empirical Analysis of Indonesia ".

Dyah Pritadrajati previously worked as an Intern Economist at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Her mastery of rigorous analytical tools and quantitative economic methods has contributed to making strong analysis and quality publications in development economics. She completed an MSc in Economics for Development at the University of Oxford, England in 2017 and MPhil in Economics at the University of Cambridge in 2018.

Based on the findings in her research, related to vocational education, Dyah said that women achieve higher results there compared to those at public schools.  Dyah measured the higher results based on four variables, namely labor force participation, unemployment risk, job formality, and income. 

Meanwhile, men who attended vocational schools were not found to be different.  Public vocational school education does not provide clear benefits for male graduates when entering the workforce.

"The success of male graduates is more determined by public or private school factors rather than public or vocational school factors," Dyah continued.

In addition, Dyah found that many vocational schools performed poorly, especially private schools. Whereas all this time, vocational education is seen as giving students the opportunity to learn more deeply about certain relevant jobs. But the impact of vocational education on the labor market was far from convincing. For vocational education to produce graduates who can enter the job market, there needs to be guarantees of quality of work, as well as changes in recruitment practices.

Increasing Vocational Quality and Women's Participation

From the findings of vocational education research, Dyah delivered three recommendations. First, all this time the community is biased about the ability of women.  Women in vocational education are still concentrated in the specialization of traditional feminine skills.

"Like sewing, cooking, or handicraft, and that is already too saturated," she added.

Such specialization also offers limited returns in terms of income.  To significantly increase the absorption of more young women into the labor market, vocational schools must not only increase but also diversify participation.

"Women must be pushed into the fields of mathematics, computer science, engineering, engineering, automotive, and others," she said.

To get to this stage, it is necessary to change the mindset that women can be skilled in many fields and that investing in women is important. That awareness is not only from the government, but also the community, especially the family. 

"There is a saying," If you invest in women, then you invest in the whole community in this nation. "So, not only women are lucky, but also men,“ she explained.

Second, it is necessary to improve the quality of vocational schools. 

"In terms of curriculum; teacher quality, the presence of infrastructure. Because vocational schools often struggle with a lack of resources and equipment," he said. 

Without improving the quality of vocational education, according to Dyah, the expansion of vocational schools that are widely applied today will not be cost-effective, both for the government and for students.

"Now the most important thing is the action, the commitment of the government and all elements of society, including companies," continued Dyah.

Third, strengthen relations and coordination with industry to overcome the mismatch of graduates and the labor market. The vocational education system needs to improve graduate qualifications and provide skills that are more relevant to the needs of the labor market. In addition, it must increase graduates' access to counseling, career guidance, and skills development training. For this reason, said Dyah, there needs to be clear communication between educational institutions and industry.

"So, what exactly is needed in the industry? Skills which are deemed necessary should be communicated and consulted. Thus, schools can finally target what skills need to be prepared,“ she continued. Regarding efforts to match these skills and market needs, Dyah added that the government already has a good business.

"I heard that companies that provides places for internships get tax reductions. So, there is an incentive for companies,“ she added.

Quoted from KBR.id, every business entity that offer internship program can get a tax discount of up to 200 percent. The provisions are contained in Government Regulation (PP) No. 45 of 2019. According to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Darmin Nasution, this policy aims to enable companies to actively develop workers' expertise.

Dyah added that Indonesia could emulate Australia, which has a special institution to oversee vocational education.

"So, there should be a coordinator who can move and organise things. So far there is no leading sector among the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Manpower,“ she said. 

Dyah presented her research at IDF 2019 at the Innovate Session entitled "Reforming the Vocational Education and Training (TVET) System for Future Job". Dyah's study became a recommendation in the IDF 2019 main theme, "Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities of Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth.” 

Congratulations to Dyah as the best paper winner!