Curriculum 2013 in vocational education, especially on vocational high school
(SMK) not only aims to produce graduates who are ready to work, but also produces
Indonesian people who are productive, creative, innovative, through strengthening
affective attitudes, skills, and knowledges which are integrated. One of the challenges
for the SMK future is how to increase the contribution of vocational education for
Indonesia development, particularly in economic development. Thompson (1973)
stated that “vocational education is economic education as it geared to the needs of the
job market and thus contributed to the national economic growth”.Basically, vocational
educationiseducationtocreateoractuateeconomicactivity, becausevocational education
is designedtofulfillneeds ofthe labor market,andit is clearthis willprovidea positive
contribution tothe worldof productiveworkthatproducesgoodsandcommoditiesthat
haveeconomic value.Because of that, the implementation of curriculum 2013 is
expected to answer that challenge. This paper presented about the development of
vocational schools in Indonesia, the implementation of the curriculum 2013 on
vocational education, particularly SMK, and efforts that can maximize the contribution
of SMK in Indonesia economic development
