Guidelines to Self-Employed Career of High Vocational Certificate Students in Institutes under the Office of the Vocational Education Commission

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish guidelines to self-employed career of high vocational certificate students through lessons learned from the implementation of twelve (12) Business Incubation Centers (BIC) in institutes under the Office of the Vocational Education Commission. The respondents were (1) heads of the BICs (2) BIC’s advisory teachers, and (3) students who joined BIC programs, total of 34 people. Research instruments comprised of interview and observation forms. Data were analyzed by content analysis. The results revealed that the committee processed the promotion for self-employment of students based on manuals. There were committee meetings and training programs on theoretical section from in-house and outside speakers. Students practiced their business planning, business plan implementation, and product marketing. Advisory teachers monitored and facilitated all activities to integrate theories into practice. All learning focused on real situations. Students had field trips at business enterprises and some of them joined field trips abroad such as Singapore, China, Malaysia, and Japan. Evaluation was done to further improvement of practices. Success factors were the followings; the ability of committee to monitor activities to create innovative products which were accepted by the market, good management reflected team working promoted appropriately use of technology in both production and marketing, collaboration of networking, and the readiness of all facilities including buildings and budget. Students viewed that; at the beginning they expected additional incomes and managerial learning from joining BIC activity, at the end they realized that they satisfied of gaining additional incomes and experiences, furthermore, they were inspired towards self-employed career and interested in starting their own business.