Mapping the Needs of Foreign Language Skills for Vocational Students Based on Industrial Demands

Abstract

A current imperative for vocational education is to be highly responsive to industrial demand. The Indonesian government requires a link and match between vocational curriculum with industrial demands. The vocational college should collect and classify the industrial demands and implement them in its curriculum designs. This study aims at mapping the need for foreign language skills for vocational students based on industrial demand. The data were collected through a survey conducted on eight multinational companies in Indonesia. The result of the study showed that the industries in Indonesia, especially multinational companies, require their applicants to have English certifications such as TOEFL and TOEIC. They also expect their applicants to have good English-speaking skills and good English business correspondence skills. The minimum scores that should be had by the applicants are 450 for TOEFL and 550 for TOEIC. Furthermore, multinational companies usually do an English interview to measure the ability of the applicant’s English-speaking skills. Moreover, multinational companies also ask their applicants to write or reply to an English email to measure the ability of the applicant’s English business correspondence skills. Therefore, vocational students should have good scores on TOEFL and TOEIC, good English-speaking skills, and good English business correspondence skills in order to become prospective applicants for industries in Indonesia, especially multinational companies.