CC Ponorogo Yesterday and Today

 It has been 6 years the existence of Ponorogo Community College which attached with SMKN 1 Jenangan, a famous vocational high school in Ponorogo. In its first year, they only have one program that is Information Technology. In its first year, they have biggest students than the other 14 CC in East Java province. It is about 54 students joined the IT program and divided in two classes, morning class and afternoon class.

Antenna used for TV Education Broadcasting

Most of students in the morning class were fresh graduate from high school and vocational high school in Ponorogo. Most of them don’t know much about the concept of CC and I was one of them. All that we know that they open a one year program in computer which is a trend technology that day and until today. A various reason made them choose CC, some said they could not passed the test to enter public University and they wanted to keep to go to college while waiting the opportunity for the next year. Some said it is hard to find a job, because they do not have a specialized skill and the rest said that they got nothing to do at home and their parents asked them to go to the college.

Students in the afternoon class were dominated by working people and older than students in the morning class. Most of them work in the morning and go to the college in the afternoon. They consist of teachers (one of them was my teacher in junior high), administration staff in schools, and the rest are work in private business. I don’t really know about their reason why they choose CC, because I don’t really know them, besides my teacher. Just a recent 3 years I know them well, when we decided to make a forum for all CC alumni in IT program and they choose me as the leader until today.

Morning class students in IT program

As the time goes by, CC Ponorogo opened two additional program, they are Mechatronics and Industrial Machine. The partnership of SMKN 1 Jenangan and German in the Indonesian German Institute(IGI), really help in developing Community College. Especially to assist its facilities. You can find out more about IGI on its website http://igi-alliance.com/web/igi.php?menu=igi.

Information Technology program still dominating in the number of students study in CC Ponorogo. I will write much about IT program here, because all that I know much is only this program. I will try to dig up more about the other program when I get back to Ponorogo.

Students have to study all course or subject in IT field, like networking, programming, maintenance and repair(MR) of computer in a year. For example, they will study MR computer in a week or two and then the week after that they will study about networking. After a week or two in networking, they will study about programming, like PHP, Visual Basic and Oracle for database. In the end, before they graduate, the must build a final project. They can choose whether to build information system using Visual Basic and Oracle or build a web based application using PHP and Oracle or MySql.

It is hard to study all of those subject in a year. Even if they can, usually they can not maximize their skill. It is also one of the reason why graduated students from CC face difficulties in getting a job in their field. They do not have any single certificate that stated their skill besides the certificate given by CC. I think it will be much easier for them to get a job if they hold a certificate,for example certificate in networking.

My friends when I was in CC and also students graduated after me, now continue their study in university or work as technician, computer teacher, freelance programmer, or open their own private business like internet cafe or computer rent in Ponorogo. Most of them stay in Ponorogo. There is no big industry in Ponorogo, because it is a small town and about 4 hours driving from Surabaya, the second big city in Indonesia and also the capital for East Java province where most big industry lays.

SMKN 1 Jenangan along with CC become a training center in Ponorogo. Whenever teachers, staff, headmaster or other business employee wants to upgrade their skill, for example in computer, they will come to CC. Then they can do the training on the weekend. As one of IGI-Alliance member, SMKN 1 Jenangan has been pointed as International-Standardized School on October 2007. There are 12 requirements, one of them is implementation of Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 9001 : 2000.

Besides providing regular class for students, CC Ponorogo also provide a certified training for database and networking which are certified by Oracle and Cisco System. That course are Oracle Academic Initiative and Cisco Networking Academy.

Two students holding a certificate in a graduation day

Credit taken by students of CC Ponorogo has not been accepted by public University or Politechnic in Indonesia. For graduated students of CC Ponorogo, the credit only accepted or recognized by Polman Bandung and Polytechnic Malang. Some private university can accept the credit taken, like a local university in Ponorogo.

Currently around 60 students taking IT program and less than 24 students in Mechatronic. The main problem facing graduated students from CC Ponorogo is to get a job in their field. With the growing number of students graduated without new business or industry opened, can be a hard time for them. One of the solution is to move to bigger city or try to create their own business. Moving to bigger city, graduated students from IT program, facing difficulties because no certificate besides CC certificate that they have and also it will not match with one of the idea of CC that is to keep resource in that town.

On my next article, I will try to write some of my own idea that soon as I get back to Ponorogo, I will try to discuss it and I hope can be implemented. Please write some comments or idea regarding this article or CC Ponorogo.(tnt)