School Partnership Management in Improving Vocational School Education Quality with Teaching Factory in Tabalong District, South Kalimantan Province

This research arises from the importance of vocational schools’ existence through efforts preparing students to become workers ready. This is aimed at reducing unemployment and improving the economy in Indonesia. School partnership management is an effort to align the learning process with the needs of the workforce in the industrial and business world. This research focused on how to plan, organize, implement, and evaluate school partnerships in improving the quality of education with Teaching Factory at SMKN 1 Tanjung and SMKN Murung Pudak in Tabalong Regency, South Kalimantan Province. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach with a multisite research design. This research conducts three data collection techniques, namely: (1) in-depth interviews, (2) observation, and (3) Documentation and multi-site research. The subjects of this study are the principals, all parts of the vice principals, teachers, educators, and students in SMKN 1 Tanjung and SMKN Murung Pudak Tabalong. The research was analyzed using an interactive data analysis model from Humberman and Miles, with the following stages: data collection, data collection, drawing conclusions, and checking the validity of the findings with credibility, dependability, and con-firmability. The collected data is analyzed with a single site, followed by cross-site analysis. The research shows that the relationship of partnership schools in increasing the quality of education at SMKN 1 Tanjung and SMKN Murung Pudak Tabalong has done a partnership school with the business or industry in several ways: based through the vision of the school's mission, goal-setting partnership, programming work, schools actively communicate with the world of work, the synchronization of curriculum, teacher education, and training, internship in the industry, guest teachers from school partners, equalization of facilities and infrastructure, and the school's efforts to convince school partners. Industrial practice is done as if it were in the real world of work so that it is following the Teaching Factory program.