Production-based Education (PBE): The Future Perspective of Education on Manufacturing Excellent

Manufacturing sector plays an important role in national as well as global economy. The competitiveness of national manufacturing requires highly educated and motivated workforces as their capability are also critical to the future viability of national manufacturing sector. Consequently, a manufacturing education is needed to be constructed as one of major drivers that can play a significant role in promoting excellence for manufacturing, leveraging competitive advantage of the industries as well as for leveling up national economic in order to cope with global challenges in the years to come [1]. The practice of manufacturing education in Indonesia to some extent has been carried out separately and independently from industry. It is difficult for industry to comprehend and adapt directly to the technological advances. Therefore, it is required for manufacturing education to have a new collaboration approach with industry in order to prepare industry for innovation and for maintaining its competitive advantages. This paper will discuss the implementation of manufacturing education in one of vocational and technical higher education institutions for manufacturing in Indonesia, known as Politeknik Manufaktur (POLMAN) Bandung. The discussion gives emphasis to the way in which POLMAN Bandung carries out manufacturing education by means of a Production-Based Education (PBE) model which embraces collaboration between education and industry. Being implemented in the last two decades, PBE model has shown its quality as a promising breakthrough for integrating a ‘real’ industry environment with the education concept. With PBE, POLMAN Bandung has been able to establish a new definition and education paradigms within which direct involvement of all stakeholders is carried out through a number of collaborative actions linking needs to both the industrial and education systems. Moreover, PBE brings up a number of important issues of manufacturing education such as embedding entrepreneurship and innovation within its education system, providing education model as a mean to develop qualified workforces for new job environments, and promoting an integrated approach of Tri-Dharma Perguruan Tinggi (education and training, research, technology transfers and community services). PBE is one of promising models in manufacturing education as it is able to address a number of emerging challenges related to industry, academia and the society in general (including government); as well as to comprehend the implementation of knowledge transfer to maintain technological excellence in industry. Furthermore, PBE also promotes and develops competency and professionalism that can be used as a strategic framework for promoting productive teaching and active learning at Polytechnic education in general.