THE ROLE OF VOCATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATIONS PERSONNEL IN PREPARING PROFESSIONAL

Improving the quality of vocational education plays a very important role in the development of education in Indonesia. This effort was made because universities as educational institutions in the vocational field produce educators (teachers) and also professional workers. Universities in the field of vocational education must be able to face challenges in the world of work, especially in the world of business and industry. Educators in higher education must also have competence as lecturers who have professionalism in teaching. If the lecturer is professional, then he can teach well in accordance with the field of study that is his expertise. Vocational education in the vocational field in preparing a skilled and educated workforce must also pay attention to the quality of teaching staff, curriculum, facilities and infrastructure and other facilities that support the learning process in the field of vocational education. By fulfilling this, students can be prepared as professional workers according to their field of study.


INTRODUCTION
The era or era of globalization and the development of advances in science, technology, and art today requires a qualified workforce because the main challenge of the Indonesian nation today is globalization which is characterized by a very high level of competition. Advances in Science, Technology, and the Arts can have a direct impact on people's lives.
Technological and vocational education institutions as education providers must be able to answer the challenges that come in the world of vocational education. Vocational education providers must be able to prepare graduates who have quality academic abilities, especially mastery of technology and must-have skills that can meet the demands of the world of work. Understanding these challenges and opportunities when linked to the direction of developing vocational education, both at the secondary and higher education levels, is related to aspects of relevance, process, and educational outcomes to stakeholder needs. The success of the relevance of educational institutions which are institutions that spread science and technology is measured by the performance of graduates in carrying out their professions armed with the content of knowledge and methods of loading that knowledge (Syarif, 2006). Furthermore, Syarif (2006) stated that the knowledge content of students needs to be equipped with the knowledge to deal with current needs and the ability to predict the needs of the development of civilization in the future. The keyword in the vocational education process is the existence of a conducive environment to increase the creativity of students in a sustainable manner and make them always think about creating jobs. The conducive environment should be able to provide opportunities, risks, innovation, leadership, abilities, and skills, both individually and in groups, in order to become a unit that is able to produce and apply creativity in the business world.
The nuances of technology in its use in various fields today, guarantee the importance of vocational technology education which is expected to produce not only scientific experts but also skilled workers in the application and development of technology in human life, they are the ones who are able to encourage the creation of community productivity in the economic field. , which will lead to the welfare of the people (Tuloli, 2006). This means that educational disciplines must be adapted to the development of science and technology, as well as management and market mechanisms that demand technology-based skills.
Vocational technology education that handles science and technology issues plays an important role in developing and improving human resources so that they can compete at regional, national, and international levels. Vocational technology education has various policies that aim to improve students to be skilled and able to compete in the world of work, which in turn demands the quality of their human resources. Based on what has been stated, the question arises, namely: what is the role of vocational education in creating professional graduates?

The Role of Vocational Technology Education
Educators are professional workers who have a very dominant influence on the achievement of student learning outcomes. Today many people have greater expectations of teachers. The success or failure of education is often addressed to the teacher. The professionalism of educators significantly determines the quality of national education. The quality of education personnel has recently received sharp attention. Based on records from the Human Development Index (HDI), there are 60% of elementary school teachers, 40% of junior high school teachers, 43% of high school teachers, and 34% of vocational school teachers are considered unfit to teach at their respective levels, while the quality of Indonesian human resources ranks 109 out of 179 countries in Indonesia. world, while in other sources, it was also stated that around 49.96 elementary, middle, and high school teachers did not meet the minimum educational qualifications (Asiatun, 2008).
Educators or teachers are professional workers who have a very dominant influence on the achievement of student learning outcomes because it is educators or teachers who provide knowledge and teaching to students so that they can develop and have skills as provisions in becoming a ready-to-use workforce (ready for use).
Educational Personnel Education Institutions as institutions that produce prospective educators and education personnel are expected to have standardized education programs in accordance with the National Education System Law no. 20 of 2003 which outlines: First, to provide education guarantees, national education standards are set which include these standards, processes, competency of graduates, educators, and education personnel, facilities and infrastructure, management, financing, and education assessment which must be improved periodically (Article 35: 1). Second, the teacher as an educator has the task of planning and implementing, learning, assessing learning outcomes, and conducting guidance and training (Article 39:2). Third, teachers as educators must have minimum qualifications and certification in accordance with their teaching authority, be physically and mentally healthy, and have the ability to realize national education goals (Article 42: 1).
Technological and vocational education is part of the higher education system in Indonesia. As an integral part of higher education in Indonesia, technology and vocational education have their own characteristics. This particularity is because apart from being higher scientific education, technology, and vocational education, it is also a job preparation education and education for teachers and education personnel in SMK. There are 3 (three) technological and vocational education agendas, including: (1) Higher education in the future needs to be directed at the realization of higher education, autonomy, it is necessary to arrange higher education management that is more conducive to improving the quality and excellence of education on an ongoing basis.
(2) Expected to always adapt to the types of work or positions that are changing and increasingly diverse. (3) The problem of teaching staff is not solely related to the number of needs that are influenced by the growth in the number of students, but the most important thing is the development of the quality and professional status of teacher positions.. In line with developments in the field of science and technology, vocational technology education can play a strategic role, because technology and vocational education is not only an educational institution that only produces teachers or personnel for business and industry but more than that, technology and vocational education. can become a "center of excellence for vocational education and technician training". Some of the strategies that can be taken include: (1) Improvement and development of production units in technology and vocational education with minimum applicable certification on a national scale.
(2) Improvement and development in the quality of science, skills, and teaching in technology and vocational fields for other parties outside of vocational-technical education.
(3) Play an active role in the Quality Assurance Agency and others.
The role of vocational technology education cannot be done only by developing the capabilities of lecturers, curriculum, learning facilities, and developing teaching and learning processes, but must also be accompanied by the development of collaborative networks with other institutions related to the development. In addition, graduates of technology and vocational education must also be able to compete in the non-teaching field. For this reason, several changes, developments, or adjustments are needed in various fields related to the world of technology and vocational education. These changes, developments, and adjustments must be carried out in a synergistic, gradual, and sustainable manner by repositioning technological and vocational higher education.
In connection with this repositioning, a special strategy is needed to reposition technology and vocational higher education. The repositioning of higher education in technology and vocational fields is needed with the aim of: (1) Responding to the challenges of education in Indonesia in order to improve the quality of human resources in the era of global competition. Technological and vocational education is an integral part of the national education system. Vision, mission, and programs in technology and vocational education are formulated and elaborated in order to meet the demands of society's needs. As an educational institution for vocational-technology education, it produces professional graduates in accordance with the competencies possessed in their field of study.
With regard to what is being discussed, namely the role of LPTKs in preparing a skilled and educated workforce, the first thing to fix is the human resources for the educators themselves. The explanation of Article 10 of the National Education System Law states that the competencies that must be possessed by an educator are: (1) Pedagogic Competence: Ability to manage to learn.
(2) Personality Competence: The ability to be a role model for students, which is manifested in the form of a solid personality, noble character, wise and authority. (3) Professional competence: the ability to master subject matter broadly and deeply (4) Social competence: the ability to communicate and integrate effectively and efficiently with students, fellow teachers, parents/guardians of students, and the community. Vocational educators in higher education must have: (1) Minimum education, academic qualifications S2 (2) Higher education background according to the subject being taught (3) Certification of educators (lecturers).
Thus, it is hoped that educators at vocational colleges can produce graduates who meet the expected standards, which are in accordance with the demands of the world of work.
Based on what has been stated above, it can be argued that the role of LPTKs as producers of professional staff must also fix matters relating to the educational process because the implementation of education will run as it should if it is supported by various things such as HR (educators), curriculum, facilities, and infrastructure as well as management that helps the world of education.

Human resources (educators)
Human resources (HR) with high competitiveness are a must because in general, the quality of our human resources is still far behind other countries. The 2003 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report, which gave a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.682 only put Indonesia in 112th rank out of 175 countries. This fact shows that various efforts and hard work are still needed to improve the quality of human resources, especially workers who are able to compete regionally, nationally, and internationally (Thamrin, 2010). The development and demands of higher education in Indonesia today, that lecturers who teach at universities have at least a master's degree in education, and even better if all lecturers in one study program have an average doctoral education. To improve the quality in teaching material in the field of vocational/skills according to the subject being taught, it can be done through a) Providing coaching and training/internships for lecturers in courses horizontally, gradually, and professionally according to the field of science, b) Providing short-term training (for example 1 month, 3 months and 6 months), and c) Conducting seminars and research between universities.

Curriculum
The curriculum is a written document that is used as a reference in the implementation of the learning process, therefore the curriculum should be designed in a simple, easy to understand and systematic manner so that it is easy to implement. The curriculum should begin with a specification of student needs because the target of the curriculum is students and the curriculum is designed based on the needs of the community because the community will be the users of graduates (Sumantri, 2004). Curriculum development must be directed at preparing students to enter the world of work as human resources who are ready to face a free market that demands an increase in quality human resources, who are able to compete and be productive.

Facilities and infrastructure
Entering the free market, which began in 2004, in Indonesia a curriculum that is oriented towards the achievement of graduates has been developed. Technology education is a study that provides opportunities for students to learn about the knowledge processes related to the technology needed to solve various problems they face (International Technology Education Association, 2001). Technological thinking skills are the ability to recognize a problem, apply knowledge, solve problems through the search for alternative answers, make decisions, communicate new findings, test and evaluate work results (Chandra, in Marthala 2010). Improvement of facilities and infrastructure for learning needs to be carried out by the universities so that the quality of human resources produced is in accordance with the development of science and technology.

Management
To achieve a quality education process according to the objectives to be achieved, the university must also improve the quality of education management so that all learning processes run smoothly starting from the level of study programs, faculties to the university level must have long-term and short-term work programs that are targeted. The achievement of educational goals, the existence of educational quality assurance institutions starting at the university, faculty, and study program levels. This requires administrative arrangements which of course involve HR who are able to manage according to their field of work.

Quality of Vocational Education and the challenges of Graduate Quality for the World of Work
Vocational education has a direct relationship with the world of industrialization, especially when it is associated with its function of meeting the needs of skilled and reliable workers and having a vision of serious attention to technology development. Facing the demands of a trained and ready-to-use workforce is a formidable challenge for our nation. School management that has not been able to prepare graduates for employment, is influenced by the low priority of investment education in the industrial world or the business world, coupled with the local content of the school itself.
The implementation of vocational education aims to improve students' knowledge and skills to prepare them as skilled, educated, and professional middle-level workers who are