Activities

DESMA Center conducted the strengthening of tourism vocational school project in Sumba Barat Daya since the mid-2020 which will be implemented until 2022. The project received generous funding support from William & Lily Foundation and Adaro Bangun Negeri Foundation. The activities of the project includes the advocacy strengthening to the provincial and district governments, capacity building of tourism vocational schools to prepare the requirements to be LSP P1, and reinforcement of network and linkage of tourism vocational schools with the relevant tourism industry.

DESMA Center carried out an audience with Plt. Head of the Office as well as Head of Secondary Education Division at the NTT Province Education and Culture Office in Kupang, 18-19 November 2020. During the audience session, the joint work plan MoU was also signed, where all parties agreed on the scope of works under the framework of the strengthening project of tourism vocational school in Sumba Barat Daya which aims to improve the education quality and training, as well as to strengthen school management quality of project beneficiaries: SMKS Pancasila and SMKN 2 in Sumba Barat Daya. The meeting was also discussed about the sister school activity plans, teacher internships and certification of productive teacher competencies. The NTT Provincial Education and Culture Office is willing to support the sister school program and will consider the funding allocation for teacher internships program and training.    

In the objective of preparing the requirements of LSP P1, DESMA Center facilitates discussion with SMK Pancasila and SMKN 2. The discussion was conducted to exchange ideas regarding business unit development, training needs assessment to improve productive teacher competencies for both schools, curriculum enhancement and collaboration with tourism industry (DUDI). The discussion was followed up with the establishment of online forum dedicated to productive teachers, training schedule along 2020 and the concept “SMK Membangun Desa” or “Vocational School Builds Village”. This concept will establish partnerships with tourism villages in SBD and will be one of the student’s industrial work practice locations.

On December 7, 2020, DESMA Center conducted a workshop “Vocational School as a Strategy to Build the Sustainability of a Generation of High-Quality Tourism Human Resources in Sumba” for the beneficiaries which include productive teachers and school management in the curriculum division. This activity aims to improve linkages and networks between school beneficiaries and the tourism industry. The speakers were from tourism industries, with participants from both beneficiary schools. During the workshop, stakeholders exchanged ideas with the speakers in developing the solution for vocational education challenges in Sumba Barat Daya, the solution to improve the curriculum that relevant to industry’s needs, presenting theories and ideal students’ practical activity for vocational school, as well as efforts to establish collaboration with industry.

In order to improve the capacity of productive teachers in both SMK Pancasila and SMN 2, DESMA Center has facilitated trainings to enhance the competencies of those productive teachers. Together with industry, which includes Hotel Sinar Tambolaka and New Sasando International Hotel Kupang as the trainers, the training was attended by 11 teachers from the hospitality study program. This event was held on 21 January 2021 with the subject on Housekeeping and Front Office Skills. This training provided by industry is expected to give practical knowledge on the basis of technical science in hospitality therefore it could be applied by the teachers in the class later on.

Regarding the Covid 19 situation, DESMA Center has coordinated all the offline activities conducted in this project with the Sumba Barat Daya Covid-19 task force to the implementation of strict health protocols to mitigate the virus transmission during pandemic.

The project will also facilitate the sister school collaboration programs between SMKN1 Kupang, an LPS P1 with SMKS Pancasila Tambolaka; and SMKN 3 Denpasar, an LSP P1 with SMKN 2 Tambolaka. SMKN 3 Denpasar is the pilot project of the ASEAN school standardization certification from the total of 13 chosen tourism vocational schools in Indonesia. SMKN 1 Kupang and SMKN 3 Denpasar became the model school in the context of sister school activity under this project. One of the activities that will be carried out in the near future is competency assessor training for productive teachers as one of the requirements to LSP P1.