Fostering 21st century skills through the merdeka curriculum

Indonesia’s Merdeka Curriculum repositions vocational education around flexibility and student-centred pedagogy, yet its relationship with competency outcomes is underexplored. This study examines associations between perceived Merdeka Curriculum and 21st Century Skills among 180 vocational-background engineering undergraduates at Universitas Negeri Padang (population N = 846; stratified sampling), with Self-Directed Learning and Student Engagement as parallel mediators (PLS-SEM). Merdeka Curriculum was associated with 21st Century Skills (β = 0.406), Self-Directed Learning (β = 0.678), and Student Engagement (β = 0.715), jointly transmitting 45.4% of the total association. Given the cross-sectional, retrospective design, findings indicate association rather than causal effect. The principal contribution is theoretical: curriculum reform relates to competency development through two complementary mechanisms, offering a transferable approach for VET systems internationally.