Analysis of the Employment Probability of Senior High Vocational School Graduates in Indonesia
Noa Yokogawa

Master^s student of Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS)
Kobe University, Japan

Abstract

Vocational education is a form of education that helps participants to be ready to work, which is expected to contribute to economic growth and reduce unemployment. In recent decades, the Indonesian government has encouraged vocational education and has expanded senior high vocational schools to realize sustainable economic growth. However, the unemployment rate of graduates from those schools is the highest compared to other education levels.
Previous studies examining the employment probability of gratitude from vocational schools have mixed results. Although most studies showed a higher employment probability of graduates from vocational schools than those who graduated from general schools, some studies found no difference between them. Hence, the study aims to clarify how much senior high vocational school graduates gain the probabilities in the context of Indonesia. Moreover, the study analyzed the probability by gender and province to estimate gender differences and regional diversity. Several studies pointed out that the vocational education system in Indonesia does not correspond to regional differences in the labor market demand. Therefore, it is necessary to consider differences in the operational efficiency among provinces to get a clear picture of vocational education in Indonesia.
The study utilized the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) 5 data that was fielded between late October 2014 and the end of April 2015. We performed a probit analysis considering a binary outcome variable and reported the results together with the marginal effect results.
Our finding implies that graduates from senior high vocational schools have a slightly higher probability of employment than those from senior high general schools. However, regarding males, there were no statistically significant differences between the employment probability of senior high general schools and senior high vocational schools. From the perspective of regional differences, while South Sumatra and Central Java showed a quite higher employment probability of senior high vocational school graduates than senior high general school graduates, West Jawa showed a contradicting result. These results provide insights into academic accumulation by measuring the effectiveness of vocational education in Indonesia and clarifying gender differences and interprovincial differences.

Keywords: Vocational Education- Employment Probability- Probit Model

Topic: Development economics