Optimising Empowerment-Based Education

The advance of the era into the 4.0 revolution has driven technological change in the economy, society, culture, education, and industry. The rapid development of technology creates demands for individuals to be able to make use of it. Open access to the internet offers both opportunities and major challenges for every individual. This has driven changes in human resources, who are required to be more capable and to adapt quickly to new environments. 

In an era that keeps transforming rapidly, education cannot escape the impact of the digital revolution sweeping every area of life. Over the past few decades, technological progress has fundamentally changed the way we interact with information, culture, and, of course, the process of education. This shift, from conventional learning towards the use of digital technology, carries profound consequences and potential to change the global education landscape.

The merdeka belajar (independent learning) programme in the Kurikulum Merdeka (Merdeka Curriculum) can actually be maximised well by schools because this programme can hone students' soft skills . They can learn public speaking, problem solving, and critical and creative thinking during the implementation of P5. However, in the P5 programme many schools still do not make the most of this activity to support the development of soft skills, with the influencing factors including a lack of facilities for implementing P5, limited time for P5, and students' lack of participation in their groups.

The field of education, both formal and non-formal, as an important foundation in shaping the quality of human resources, has also not escaped the rapid development of technology.  The demand for digital skills leads to a demand for improving the quality of human resources. Improving the quality of education can be done by mastering hard skills which must be accompanied by improving individuals' soft skills .

In efforts to accelerate progress in education, the integration of soft skills into every lesson is in principle already stated explicitly in the current education curriculum. In reality, however, many educational institutions and educators still give too little priority and focus to soft skills as the main goal and output of education (Irawan, dkk., 2023). Developing soft skills is an important matter that must be addressed. Soft skills themselves influence job readiness, or employability soft skills (Utomo & Azwar, 2018).

The development of education is felt to be very fast, especially on the island of Java. Wonogiri Regency, one of the regencies in Central Java, also feels this rapid development. Although Wonogiri Regency is not especially remote, education in Wonogiri Regency is still unevenly distributed. A lack of education about the importance of education and of honing soft skills leaves the people of Wonogiri Regency unaware of the importance of education. Yet soft skills are greatly needed in university life as well as at work. This has led to rising unemployment in Wonogiri Regency, especially among senior high school (SMA) and vocational high school (SMK) graduates. 

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik) of Central Java Province, Wonogiri Regency had an Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) of 1.92% in 2023. The Central Statistics Agency also states that vocational high school graduates account for the largest number of unemployed people in Wonogiri. Previously, the Wonogiri Central Statistics Agency recorded the size of the labour force in Wonogiri in 2023 at 712,252 people, an increase of 123,671 people compared with 2022. Of that number, 13,730 people, or 1.92%, were openly unemployed.

The very close link between soft skills and job readiness must be followed by concrete steps starting from the smallest scale in society. Empowering the youth communities that exist in society to the fullest can contribute to improving the quality of human resources.

Improving the quality of human resources does not focus only on improving individuals' hard skills but also soft skills. Soft skills are defined as skills, abilities, and traits related to personality and behavioural attitudes rather than formal or technical knowledge (Mahasneh & Thabet, 2015). From a sociological perspective, soft skills are referred to as Emotional Intelligence Quotient (Rahayu, 2013). Based on this understanding,  the    scope of soft skills has been put forward by many experts in diverse ways.

Soft skills are also greatly needed in education, especially for SMA or SMK students who will face university life and the world of work. Therefore, a programme to improve soft skills for SMA and SMK students is needed. In addressing this problem of soft skills development, there are several solutions, including giving students an understanding of the importance of honing soft skills from SMA or SMK onwards and raising awareness of the importance of practising organisational skills in order to face university life and work that demand much interaction with other people, not only with close friends.

Soft skills development can be carried out through the empowerment of communities in society. Community empowerment is a programme that aims to shape self-reliant behaviour and attitudes in society. The concept of community empowerment is aligned with community development , which is the process of building networks of interaction to improve people's quality of life.

In Wonogiri Regency itself, there is in fact already a programme called “Dalem Pasinaon” located in Slogohimo District, which was founded in 2019 by Dhiya Restu Putra, a student of the Regional Literature study programme at Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS). However, this programme is still not optimal in supporting the development of soft skills for all students in Wonogiri Regency. The “Dalem Pasinaon”  programme could be more effective if supported by the “RUBIKAN” programme, which can be held in the other districts of Wonogiri Regency. 

The Rumah Bina Pendidikan (RUBIKAN, Education Development House) programme will be held with a soft skills development training model as part of community empowerment efforts, such as public speaking, problem solving, and getting used to critical and creative thinking, to prepare SMA and SMK students for university life and the world of work and to reduce unemployment among SMA and SMK graduates caused by a lack of soft skills development.

The RUBIKAN programme will work with the Wonogiri Regency Office of Education and Culture to disseminate education on the importance of developing soft skills for SMA or SMK students to face university life and work. The outreach can be carried out online through zoom meetings or educational content published on social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and also TikTok. This can be an effective approach because most SMA or SMK students pay more attention to social media. Besides the online approach, another approach is offline, by initiating RUBIKAN (Rumah Bina Pendidikan).

This Rumah Bina Pendidikan will provide a venue for SMA and SMK students to improve their soft skills through weekly training classes in cooperation with youth communities such as karang taruna (village youth organisations) and local Wonogiri communities such as wonogirich. The programme will be run with a different soft skills class each week. The classes to be held include public speaking, problem solving, voice over, and entrepreneurship classes. Each class will include a presentation of material, focus group discussions, and end with practice. To measure participants' achievement each week, a weekly logbook will be set up. This logbook can serve as a benchmark of the success of each class held. The logbook will also make it easier to evaluate future classes.

It is hoped that community empowerment on a small scale such as karang taruna can maximise SMA and SMK students' participation in weekly soft skills training. Empowering the communities within the local neighbourhood can be an option when considered in terms of effectiveness. Cooperation with local communities in Wonogiri such as wonogirich is expected to broaden relationships, which will further add to participants' insight and also help them better recognise Wonogiri's local potential. 

The Wonogiri Office of Education and Culture can also facilitate the “RUBIKAN (Rumah Bina Pendidikan)” programme by expanding information about it to the SMA and SMK students in Wonogiri. Through this RUBIKAN programme, it is hoped that SMA or SMK students in Wonogiri Regency can hone their soft skills to prepare for university life and work, which require not only hard skills but also soft skills.