INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, SOCIAL, AND HUMANITIES ijesh.unri.ac.id DOI: https://doi.org/10.31258/ijesh.1.1.103-110 103 © 2019 Jatmiko. Relevance and Challenges for Vocational Education Toward Demographic Dividend in Indonesia Muhammad Iqbal Jatmiko*, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Gadjah Mada University * mochamad.iqbal.j@mail.ugm.ac.id Introduction The discourse surrounding the phenomenon of demographic dividend in Indonesia has become a serious problem to be considered by various academics and the government. This happens because this phenomenon will become a window of opportunity as well as a very big problem if it is not implemented with the right procedure. The existence of a transformative situation that projects a rapid decline in the rate of birth, death, and the growth rate of a population of people makes its own problems to maintain its sustainability stably. Regarding the context in Indonesia, the demographic dividend phenomenon is estimated to have occurred since 2012; as the starting point for a larger transition in the period 2028-2031 (Rimbawan, 2014, p. 39). In this period, the level of dependency ratio was at its lowest point, which was around 46.9%. That is, in every number of 100 productive age residents will cover around 47 non-productive age residents. This condition will decline again in 2035 with the level of dependency ratio going up again to 47.3% due to the large composition of the elderly population. In this case, the indicator of the growing number of productive ages of the population is increasing which seems to have its own resonance and profitability in the dimension of economic growth. Agree with Jati (in Maryati, 2015, p. 131) which states that economic benefits occur in line with the following requirements. First, the supply of large labor with quality that meets the Article Info Abstract Received : 2019-06-11 Accepted : 2019-07-15 Published : 2019-07-28 The writing of this paper is motivated by the transformation of vocational-based education in the face of demographic dividend and possible problems. This phenomenon is very important to be studied more deeply as an effort to see the success and challenges of vocational education in Indonesia. This article argues that there is a productive relationship between increasing vocational education through vocational secondary schools and diplomas with demographic dividend transitions. This can be seen in the data which show that there is a decline in the unemployment rate in Indonesia, especially for vocational high school graduates; as an impact of improving the quality and quantity of vocational education. The writing of this article uses qualitative methods with the support of secondary data from the Central Statistics Agency and literature studies of various sources related to the issue of study. In the results of the discussion, it was found a new discussion about the role of the government in anticipating the increasingly rapid context of the technological era so that there was no higher educated unemployment. The distribution of inter-regional policies and strengthening in technology qualifications are also potential sources that must be developed again so that the demographic transition can result in improvements in the country's economy. Key words: vocational education, demographic dividend, unemployment