SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Minister of Education Organization) once again held the third batch of SEA-TVET Student Exchange Program. Similar to the previous batch, in this batch Polman Astra also participated by sending the students to make this program a success. Theodorus Nico Wahyu and Handyka Adywiarso from Automotive Engine Maintenance study program and M. Asyat Mustafidul Umam from the Manufacturing Technology study program chosen to participated in the student exchange program at the Ungku Omar Polytechnic that located in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Ungku Omar Polytechnic (PUO) is one of the oldest Polytechnics in the country of Malaysia, and with all the technological advancements that have been achieved by the country, it adds more spirit in the participants that comes from Polman Astra Jakarta, Bogor IPB, STIKI Malang and ISAT University of the Philippines. There are 10 students joins the program in this Polytechnic. This program was running for 1 month since February 17, 2019. During the program, the students lived in a dormitory not far from the campus. For 1 month they’re studying under the supervision of Mr. Khairol Hisam Bin Hamran, the manager of incubator Poly-Aircon PUO.
The students give a positive review, although this was their first experience traveling abroad, but it also give them a pride after meeting their new colleagues who learned the same field from various countries in ASEAN. They become more confident after knowing that the Indonesian human resources has great quality compared with other ASEAN country. Their friendships with students in the ASEAN region are also expected to be able to transmit knowledge, experience and technology to each other so that the development of vocational education in the ASEAN region can be accelerated. This is parallel with the expectation of the collaboration built by SEAMEO TVET to develop the quality of vocational education in Southeast Asian. “We’re hoping the program will be continued by SEAMEO so that many students can experience the development of vocational higher education in the ASEAN region, and aside from that, we also get new friends abroad who share same passion in the vocational education,” said Theodorus Nico Wahyu, a chief of the third batch of the SEA-TVET Student Exchange Program.