Taman Siswa

As many as 7,000 Indonesian vocational school students who successfully passed English test will go to Unites States to learn more about cooperatives, an official said.

“We have given international-standard vocational school students across the country a chance of taking part in English test and found that 7,000 of them passed the test,” National Education Ministry`s director for vocational education Joko Sutrisno said here Wednesday.

The scholarship was mainly allocated to vocational school students who studied information and technology as well as hotel service and came from provinces that were frequently visited by investors and foreign tourists like Jakarta, Denpasar, Medan, Makassar, Yogyakarta and Surabaya among other cities.

“We promoted potentials of the 7,000 students to some concerned instances. The Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises Ministry has responded to the offer by providing them with the scholarship to the US,” Joko said.

The Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises Ministry which does have a program to form structured young entrepreneurs will send the successful vocational students to the US in stages beginning this year, Joko has said.

At first, the ministry would send 600 students to the US to learn more about cooperatives for 1.5 years, he said adding that after they return they would study again at the Bandung-based Indonesian Cooperatives Institute for one year.

“Finally they are required to make a business plan and tasked to use or practice their knowledge,” he said.

The government has earmarked Rp1.6 trillion out of Rp43.4 trillion for vocational school development in 2007 as part of efforts to reduce unemployment rate, Joko has said.

He also said in the next three years ratio of vocational school to high school would hopefully be 70 to 30 from today`s 30 to70, he said.(*)

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