Standard competency gaps of vocational teachers

The objective of this study was to investigate the gaps between the professional competence of vocational high school (VOC) teachers of productive subjects and the professional competence standard in learning activities to produce competent graduates to do their jobs. A questionnaire which was mostly consisting of closed questions and multiple choices and supplemented with in-depth interviews was distributed to provide flexibility wherever needed to respondents and explanations and information freely whose confidentiality of answers is guaranteed by researchers. Convenience sampling was used to obtain smooth data collection from respondents, including ten principals, 50 certified educator teachers from ten vocational schools in Semarang City who have dedication through oral requests participating in this study. This research was conducted for almost three months. It was found that the majority of respondents felt that teacher professional competence was still classified as having a large enough gap to produce an effective and efficient learning process in producing graduates who had competencies in accordance with what was mandated by the curriculum, in order to be able to work referring to the needs of the workforce.