BETWEEN ACADEMIC STUDY AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING

by : Yuni Hadziqoh

No one does not want to be qualified person, whether for working or being usefull human. Some people choose to go to university for academic study. Other people prefer to do vocational training because there is a lack of qualified workers, such as electricians and mechanics. There are possible arguments on both supportive point and objection of the advantages of each selection to be qualified person, which will investigate below.

Studying in university for academic purpose offers some attractive advantages. Not all people can get a chance to study in university, so that it offers a high social status in society. People who can study in university will be considered as a smart or rich person. Alumnus from university, mostly will get a higher position or prestigious position in job. As a result, studying in university gives opportunity to get promotion or higher position. For example, compared between teacher or white-collar worker, and a seller in traditional market, sometime a seller can get more much money than teacher. In contrast, people usually give more appreciate to teacher than seller. Alumnus from university has higher position in social status in society.

On the other hand, other people prefer to choose vocational training than academic study because it has more advantages that can fulfill the needs of qualified workers. We often find several alumnus from university only have graduation certificate, but they do not have any skills to be qualified workers. Vocational training offers some experiences to get skills, so that the students can be qualified workers. Students in vocational training usually get a job faster, because the vocational training has many links to companies who need their skills. Studying in vocational training also does not need much money, because it offers affordable cost of study than in university. However, alumnus from vocational training often get job that does not have high status in society.

Apart from that, actually, the university and vocational training have different goals in leading human resources. University prefers to be focus on developing the science. They do some researches to find new facts and lead new theories. Vocational training focuses on deepening and increasing expertise. In other word, the university prefers to lead  scientists and thinkers that can develop the knowledge by new theories, and vocational training leads workers that can practice the theories.

To conclude, both of views have each advantages and disavantages. The important thing is back to ourselves, which one that becomes our priority and what our ability is.