The main problem faced by the education world is the low employment
level for graduates of Vocational Senior High Schools (SMK). Ideally, there
should be 80% to 85% graduates that should be directly admitted to the
work forces, but up till now this percentage is approximately only 61%.
The article analyze how the effect of Practical Experience, Knowledge of
Job Opportunities, Teacher Professionalism and Work Motivation on Work
Readiness at Vocational High School (SMK) Semarang Automotive
mechanical expertise program. The research sample was taken using
cluster proportional random sampling. Data were collected by
questionnaires and documentation. Based on a preliminary test on grade
XII students of Mechanical Automotive of SMK found that there were 36
valid problems and 18 invalid ones in the questionnaires. These problems
were then refined and reduced proportionally to only 40 according to the
existing sub-factors. After being e-tested the instrument produced a
validity score higher that the table r (0.334). It meant that the instrument
was valid and could be used as an appropriate tool for tests. The data were
analyzed using percentage-descriptive analyses. The total effect of
experiences in practices on the readiness of the students to enter the
existing wok force was 2%, the total effect of students’ knowledge about
employment was 3.04% and the total effect of teachers’ professionalism
was 2.63%. Based on the above findings, it can be concluded that there
were effects of experiences in academic practices, of students’ knowledge
about the existing employment, of teacher professionalism and of students’
motivations for work on readiness to enter the work forces. Collectively,
these four factors contributed 30.6% of the total effect, while the remaining
60.4% of the total effect was due to by some other factors not investigated
in this research.
