A Character Education Model in Vocational School as the Provision for Entering Work Realm

Character education is something that schools particularly vocational schools should conduct to prepare students to enter work realm. Although the vocational school graduates’ opportunity to pursue higher education level is widely opened, many students prefer joining the workforce right after graduating from vocational schools. Graduates’ good character is nurtured through a long process and developed over times through a sustainable teaching, for example, learning and practices. In vocational schools, instilling character values can be done by integrating character education into practical learning because more time is allocated for practice (66.7%) than for theoretical learning (33.3%). With such portion, the interaction between teacher/instructor and students occurs more in practical learning. For this reason, instilling good character values would be more effective when conducted in practical learning. The objective of study was to guide the vocational schools to emphasize on the importance of character education to help students prepare for work realm. Development process should be conducted systematically and sustainably and covers a variety of traits such as honesty, discipline, hard work, creativity, and responsibility. Keywords—character education, good character