Polman Astra gives 5 Astra Scholarships to the Winner of 2018 National Vocational School Competency Contest

On the final event of the 2018 National Education Day, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education, the Directorate of Vocational High School Development organized 26th National Vocational High School Student Competency Contest. This annual event was held in the Mataram city, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) since May 6 and ended on May 11, 2018. Astra Polman who has been partnering with the Ministry of Education and Culture feels honored to be able to participate in the event.

The event was opened by the Minister of Education and Culture, Prof. Dr. Muhajir Effendy, M.A.P at Lombok City Center, West Nusa Tenggara. Tony Harley Silalahi, Director of Polman Astra, was also present at the event as one of the Institutional collaboration partners in the National Vocational High School Student Competency Contest. This year the contest was competes 56 fields, 50 of them are fields that are routinely competed every year, only 1 new field is competed this year, and that is Floristry. There are also five new contest fields which are a collaboration between The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and the Ministry of Education and Culture, the title of the competition is Online South east Asia Creative Camp (SEACC), which followed not only by students from Indonesia but also several participants from countries in Southeast Asia. Another new thing in this contest is the organize method for several competency contest are online, this refers to the theme of this year’s Student Competency Contest “The Competent Young Generation That Have Character”

Seeing the Polman Astra’s success in recruiting the best students from the Student Competency competition in recent years, this year Polman Astra is committed to supporting Student Competency Contest by giving Astra Scholarships to 5 winners from each competency field. The competition field itself is adjusted to the study program in Polman Astra. “It’s a great responsibility for Polman Astra to provide these scholarships to the winner because Polman Astra must be committed to preparing them for a higher event, the World Skill Competition (WSC) which will be hold in 2019,” said the Hari D Nugroho, Head of the Alumni Student Affairs Department and Academic collaboration appointed by Polman Astra, as the Observer at the event.

On this occasion, the Committee also organized an Industry and Vocational Exhibition, which was participated by Institutional collaboration partners. Polman Astra was also present to fill the booth provided by the committee to introduce Polman Astra to 3000 participants of the National Vocational High School Student Competency Contest. The participants were the best students representing their respective provinces and the teachers who prepared them. In his speech, the Director of Vocational Development of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Dr.Ir.M.Bakrun, MM wished that through this event, they can promote vocational graduates to the Business World, the Industrial World and other stakeholders. Polman Astra also wants to take advantage of this moment to get acquainted with the best vocational high schools in Indonesia since some of the Polman Astra candidate students are from Vocational High School graduates.

Aside from participating in the Vocational and Industrial Exhibition, Polman Astra also sent one of its lecturers and instructors as judges in the competition of Automobile Technology. Ambar Wanto has experience as a examiner in the Student Competency Contest from the Vocational High School, provincial level and this is the seventh time he was appointed as a national judge along with industry practitioners from Astra Daihatsu Motor (ADM), Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) and experts from WSC and ASEAN Skill Competition (ASC).

The 26th Vocational High School Student Competency Contest finally ended on May 11, 2018 at the Lombok City Center starting at 19.30 and in this event, the winners from each field of competition was announced. Based on Polman’s commitment, Astra chose 5 winners to be given the Astra Scholarship Program. And this year Polman Astra took 5 winners from the CNC Turning and Automobile Technology. And the general winner of the 26th National Vocational High School Student Competency Contest goes to the DKI Jakarta as they defeat the last year winner, Central Java.