The Kupang State Agricultural Polytechnic held an Agrotalk #4 Webinar Series to take a deeper look at the Independent Learning Campus Independent strategy at the Malang State Polytechnic (Polinema), July 13, 2022. With the theme "Independent Implementation Strategy for Independent Campus Learning at Vocational Colleges" which presented Ratih Indri Kapsari ST., M.T., Ph.D, Assistant Director IV of the State Polytechnic of Malang as a resource person.

The State Polytechnic of Malang (Polinema) was chosen to be the resource person for this webinar because Polinema is one of the Vocational Colleges that has implemented the Independent Learning Campus Independent Program (MBKM) in its institution.

The webinar moderated by Stormy Vertygo, S.Si., M.Scini was attended by Heads of Departments, Heads of Study Programs, Lecturers, and Students of the Kupang State Agricultural Polytechnic and can be watched on the PolitaniKupangyoutube channel.

Deputy Director I for Academic Affairs DR. Jacqualine A. Bunga, SP., M.Si. Wadir I in his speech said that there were 8 (eight) KupangPolitani students who had participated in the Certified Independent Study and Internship Program (MSIB).

"In 2021 there will be 1 (one) student who has participated in the Certified Independent Study and Internship Program (MSIB) and in 2022 there will be 7 (seven) students participating in the Certified Independent Study and Internship Program (MSIB)," he explained.

Furthermore, Deputy Director I for Academic Affairs explained that this year the KupangPolitani plans for the Study Program to involve students to take part in student exchanges, both between Study Programs at the KupangPolitani and outside the KupangPolitani.

“The study program is given the opportunity to produce a curriculum that can later collaborate with other study programs, which have the same competence. Students will also be given the opportunity to do industrial internships for 6 months which will later be recognized as equivalent to 20 credits,” he said.

Jacqualine hopes that Polinema can share experiences so that the KupangPolitani can learn how to prepare and strategies to run the Merdeka Learning Campus Merdeka (MBKM).

"We hope to get information on how to run the MBKM program, especially through collaboration with the Business World and the Work Industry World (Dudika). Another aspect that wants to be studied is how the KupangPolitani can prepare students to play an active role in the MBKM programs offered, as has been implemented by Polinema. competitive in the world of work," he said.

In his presentation, Ratih Indri Hapsari ST., M.T., Ph.D explained three things related to the MBKM Program at Vocational Colleges, MBKM Implementation at Polynema and MBKM Strategy through Strengthening Partnerships.

As a higher education provider, PTV needs to prepare students or students to face social, technological and adaptive changes to technological changes in the 4.0 and even 5.0 era. Several components must be prepared to provide educational services that can be adaptive to industry needs.

Ratih explained about the direction of PTV development policies, including the relevance of the curriculum, in which it is expected that human resources produced from vocational education institutions can have competencies that are very close to industry needs.

"A number of things must be pursued such as bringing industry into campus, lecturers and students as well as internships in companies, providing industry-standard teaching materials, organizing industry-based activities on campus in the form of teaching factories, standardizing lecturers' expertise in providing training, and certificates of competence. to ensure that it is standardized, and needs to be supported by facilities,” he explained. In terms of institutional preparation, Ratih also emphasized the importance of a team group on campus that is specifically responsible for the implementation of MBKM.

Furthermore, Ratih added that the most important thing is to synergize the sectors involved, namely academia (universities), government, industry, society and the media.

"It is hoped that it will form a synergy to support the PTV development program," he said

Currently the Integration of Vocational Higher Education and the World of Work is carried out through Link and Match 8 + i. All grant programs from the Ministry contain an element of link and match, which requires the involvement of strategic partners.

"Not only the MoU must be reproduced, but the MoU can have an impact on other activities on campus," he said.

According to him, the curriculum must be prepared by prioritizing strengthening aspects of soft skills and work character to complement the hard skills aspects that are in accordance with the needs of the world of work.

Real project-based learning from the world of work (PBL) is also needed to ensure that hard skills will be accompanied by soft skills and strong character and an increase in the number and role of lecturers/instructors from industry and experts from the world of work.

Ratih also explained several implementations of MBKM Polynema which include; Institutional Partnership Industry Internship, Cooperation Class, Teaching Factory, Google awakening/decoding, Independent Study of MSIB Merdeka Campus, and Credit Transfer

Polinema implements a Partnership strategy to strengthen MBKM through the field of collaboration, namely by expanding collaborative classes or study programs, increasing participation in academic and research partnership grants such as; MF, CF, PPBR, Teaching Practitioners, IISMAVO, Simlitabmas, etc.

Another strategy is to expand overseas cooperation, strengthen the Polinema brand image, strengthen the Teching Factory for learning through business partnerships in Business Units, strengthen the Collaborative Research Group, strengthen the business industry for the commercialization of student innovative products, initiate collaborative consortia, harmonize information and programs. institutional collaboration with study programs and improvement of governance and information systems

After the presentation of the material, it was followed by discussion and question and answer from the participants to explore more deeply the strategy for strengthening partnerships with DUDI to support MKBM.

By looking at the strategy that has been implemented by Polinema, PolitaniKupang has become more daring to be creative and advance in developing MBKM.

For information, Agrotalk is a webinar series about the cooperation between the KupangPolitani and DUDIKA nationally & internationally, which is managed by the cooperation department. The work team consists of all majors at PolitaniKupang chaired by Dr.Eng. MagfiraSyarifuddin, SP., M.Sc.