Implementation of mechanical engineering curriculum in school and industry in the 3 and 4 years vocational high school programs (VHS) for the improvement of the quality of graduates to meet the requirement of ASEAN economic community

In field application, there are various models of Vocational High School (VHS) education based on the period of study, education design in school or industry and competence design. There are 3 year VHS programme, 4 year VHS programme and community college. Vocational education in Indonesia challenges the Asean Economic Community. The appropriate vocational education curriculum either 3 year or 4 year VHS program is outcome-based. Regulation of The Ministry of Education and Culture, No 70/ 2013 on Basis Sketch and Curriculum of Sewer Structures of VHS endorsed the 3 and 4 years VHS programmes. This research, a descriptive research, makes comparison between two independent samples: implementation of the curriculum of mechanical engineering in the 3 and 4 years VHS programmes in school and industry to improve the quality of graduates who major in mechanical engineering at VHS Negeri in Makassar. Most graduates who do 3 years and 4 years VHS programmes lack expertise and are poor in the field, and cannot adapt to the development of science and technology. From the result of this work, it is concluded that there are differences in the implementation of the curriculum of mechanical engineering between in the 3 years and 4 years VHS programmes at school and industry; there are also differences from the students’ outcomes in both programmes. So graduates of 4 year VHS program challenge AEC more than the 3-year VHS program graduates.   Key words: Curriculum, 3-year VHS, 4-year VHS, graduate, Asean Economic Community (AEC).