Keywords

Introduction

The entrepreneurial education in Malaysia is incorporated into the National Higher Education Action Plan as an initiative to promote innovation and make change in the economy to create new wealth and generation of job opportunities. It is asserted that aspects of entrepreneurship can be learned (Timmon & Spinelli, 2004) whilst some argued to the contrary suggesting that some elements cannot be learned (Akola & Heinonen, 2006). However, despite this ongoing debate, there has been a great emergence in global education in entrepreneurship education prompted by key realization to enhance the economy through nurturing and supporting entrepreneurial ventures. Malaysia is no exception in promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship education programs in the development of entrepreneurship in Malaysia. The country has engaged itself in entrepreneurship since the British colonial rule and reinvented its economic considerations unique to Malaysian circumstances in the New Economic Policy (NEP) (1971–1990), National Development Policy (NDP) (1991–2000), and the New Economic Model (2010). The objectives of the NEP were to eradicate poverty and to disassociate a particular ethnic group with a specific economic activity or occupation. Furthermore, the policies embedded are focused on strengthening national entrepreneurship through nurturing interest in entrepreneurial education amongst the population. Thus, this particular sector in education has emerged to be one of the most popular research and learning domains in academic circles in Malaysia (Lee, Chang et al., 2005). It is suggested that entrepreneurship is viewed as the “panacea to the unemployment problem” (Ahmad, 2013) which professed itself to be a tool to overcome unemployment in a country. In Malaysia, the increase in unemployment rate is disconcerting where the rate has risen to 3.3 % recently (Department of Statistics, 2015). One of the reasons is due to the number of graduates that exceeds market demand which leads to an increase in the unemployment rate (Ariff, Ghada, Muslim, & Hamid, 2014). Fresh graduates are facing more difficulties to secure a job where the number of jobs is limited (Ismail, 2011; Keat, Selvarajah, & Meyer, 2011). The role of the government is therefore extremely important in fostering entrepreneurship education in Malaysia to ensure that unemployment rate is reduced by imparting relevant knowledge and skills that will discard the notion of being a job seeker to one who creates jobs. Hence, this chapter reviews existing policies and educational curriculum for entrepreneurial knowledge in Malaysia supported by the government and suggests further improvements to the role of the government to stress the importance of entrepreneurial education.

Policy Initiatives on Entrepreneurial Education

Entrepreneurial education and training can involve a range of public and private stakeholders including the government (Volkmann, 2009). A government’s rationale for playing a role is related to its interest in addressing mindsets, knowledge-based skills, and cultural constraints to entrepreneurship. The role is shaped by the potential knowledge spillovers of entrepreneurial related knowledge and skills (across potential or practicing entrepreneurs in a certain area) as well as by evident market failures when individuals recognize the value of management expertise to their entrepreneurial outcomes (World Bank, 2012). Governments can serve as champions through establishment of national plans and agendas (Peña, Transue, & Riggieri, 2010) and can set policy frameworks that shape the context of entrepreneurial education within higher learning institutions (HEIs) (Pittaway & Cope, 2007). In this aspect, the Malaysian Government has been and continues to be supportive of entrepreneurial education. With the launch of the NEM in 2010 by the Prime Minister, the emphasis on creating new entrepreneurs was stressed to stimulate a competitive domestic economy and further led to the establishment of the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Development Policy in 2010. This particular policy gives importance to the inculcation of entrepreneurial values and cultures amongst students or graduates in the HEIs. The policy serves to enhance the development of entrepreneurial programs into a more defined, holistic, and well-organized curriculum aiming to produce graduates from institutions of higher learning with entrepreneurial attributes and thinking skills. In addition, the policy envisions to increase the number of entrepreneurs amongst the graduates with relevant skills and knowledge to stimulate economic transformation towards a high-income nation.

To realize these aims, the policy addresses six important thrusts (Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia, 2013) that include the following:

  1. 1.

    To establish entrepreneurship institute in every HEI

  2. 2.

    To provide holistically and well-planned entrepreneurial education and programs

  3. 3.

    To empower the entrepreneurial development programs

  4. 4.

    To create and effective measuring mechanism

  5. 5.

    To provide a conducive and ecosystem for entrepreneurship development

  6. 6.

    To enhance competency of entrepreneurship trainers

The result of the implementation of the policy is truly encouraging with 19 HEIs (Table 49.1) in Malaysia having introduced entrepreneurial education as a compulsory subject (Yusoff, Zainol, & Ibrahim, 2015).

Table 49.1 List of higher education institutions offering entrepreneurial education
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Several issues were faced during the delivery of entrepreneurial education including the content and delivery method that seemed to emphasize more on theoretical knowledge than a practical approach of the subject. However, there are universities such as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) that implement online business simulation (OBS) designed by Centre of Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development (CESMED) for students to experience practical aspect of entrepreneurial learning in the entrepreneurial course. Challenges linking to planning and execution of the entrepreneurial learning, lack of trained lecturers and teaching assistants, weakness or lack of technological support and infrastructure and funding, and lack of consistent reassurance to students to convince entrepreneurship as a career option are experienced during delivery of entrepreneurial curriculum. Hence, to move forward in achieving more graduates to become entrepreneurs upon graduation, the Strategic Plan on Higher Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education was established in 2013. The purpose of this plan is to enhance the earlier 6 thrusts by introducing and implementing 15 core strategies (Table 49.2).

Table 49.2 Six thrusts and 15 proposed strategies on entrepreneurship education
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It was found that four out of six thrusts in the Strategic Plan on Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (2013–2015) have been successful (Shamsudin, Al Mamun, Binti Che Nawi, Md Nasir, & Zakaria, 2015). The successful thrusts are the first thrust which is to empower the entrepreneurship center in every HEI; the second thrust, which is to provide holistic and well-planned entrepreneurial education and programs; the fourth thrust, which is to enhance the competency of HEI’s entrepreneurship trainers and facilitators; and finally the sixth thrust, which is to increase the effect of the implementation of HEI’s entrepreneurial education and development. The less successful ones include the third thrust, which is to empower entrepreneurial development programs, and the fifth thrust, which is to provide a conducive environment and ecosystem for entrepreneurship development.

Entrepreneurship Educational Programs

Several entrepreneurship programs are introduced as a result of the policies to develop entrepreneurship in Malaysia. The main stakeholder that is tasked to enable these entrepreneurial programs is the Ministry of Education that began its efforts in the primary schools and later extended its reach to secondary schools (Othman et al., 2012). Entrepreneurial program at HEIs can be traced back to a pioneer program on entrepreneur in 1982 with KEMBARA Usahawan (KEMUSA) by Universiti Teknologi MARA (then Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM)) to create awareness on entrepreneurial opportunities amongst students (Rahim et al., 2015). This was followed by a fully developed course named Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (ETR 300) for diploma students (Abdul Latif et al., 1996).

The National Entrepreneurship Institute (INSKEN) that was formed in 2005 has implemented some programs to stimulate entrepreneurial spirits and increase knowledge and skills such as the Program Usahawan Bimbing Usahawan. This particular program is set up by stakeholders in the industry and professionals through knowledge-sharing seminars, training and coaching segments such as the Business Design Workshop and Business Facilitator, Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme (SIS), Program Galakan Perniagaan, and Program Pembudayaan Keusahawanan (INSKEN, 2015).

It is noteworthy to state that there is a program that was introduced by the Malaysian Government to support entrepreneurial programs amongst students at the universities known as the 1Malaysia Entrepreneur (1MET) in 2013. The target audience that can participate in programs organized by 1MET is anyone between 18 and 40 years old especially school leavers and graduates who already have a job. The aim of 1MET is to transform Malaysia to become an entrepreneurial based nation by optimizing collaboration and usage of public and private resources in accordance with the ninth National Blue Ocean Strategy—NBOS.

On the day of the launch of 1MET, the Extreme Entrepreneurship World Tour was presented to spread the entrepreneurial mindset shared by some of the top global entrepreneurs through their stories inspiring young minds to venture in entrepreneurship. This extensive program by 1MET is designed in a form of a series of hands-on approach entrepreneurship boot camps such as the 1MET 3.0 2015 Bootcamp (Fig. 49.1) to provide basics of entrepreneurship to first-time entrepreneurs and also entrepreneurs already owning small businesses. Four areas are focused in this program including the stage of creating ideas (IDEATION), testing the idea (VALIDATION), building a prototype or drawing up concept (BUILDING), and finally pitching your ideas (PITCH). 1MET provides online resources for entrepreneurs of all the support programs available for them under various agencies including Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC), MSC Malaysia, Meet Your Experts (ER360), Majlis Amanah Rakyat, Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Corp Malaysia, Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KDNKK), and Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS). From all these agencies, MaGIC is the latest entrepreneurial entity formed by the Malaysian Government in 2014 to develop dynamic entrepreneurs with high endurance equipped to take up challenges and make impact at regional and global stage.

Fig. 49.1
figure 1

1MET 3.0 Bootcamp 2015 (Source: 1MET)

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It is the leading agency that is significant to ensuring that Malaysia becomes the start-up capital in Asia based on three mandates that include supporting an entrepreneurial community, enhancing the start-up ecosystem, and exposing success stories and inspiring the Rakyat (public). Hence, MaGIC will support and foster strong communities where entrepreneurs are able to easily connect and share their ideas and solutions with each other, establish an academy for start-up education, seed accelerator programs, and provide qualified entrepreneurs with regional and global exposure and further intends to create a series of educational content about how start-ups are playing a significant role in solving real problems in the world, and reveal the entrepreneurs who are driving these innovations (MaGIC, 2015). It will also provide supporting infrastructure and services, access to start-up capital and investment, creative methodology, and training and collaboration with universities, research houses, and international organizations. Some of the programs and events organized by MaGIC to encourage students who are interested in entrepreneurship to attend include Pitching Karaoke Workshops, MaGIC Accelerator Programs, e@Stanford Program, and Stanford Go2Market.

Conclusion

It is suffice to conclude, from this brief yet significant insight into the initiatives of the Malaysian Government to nurture entrepreneurial interest amongst the students at the universities, that continuous and rigorous efforts are developed and implemented at the HEIs and also by other supporting governmental agencies such as MaGIC. The entrepreneurial education at the HEIs must be frequently updated to ensure its effectiveness in resulting to creating interest and nurturing future entrepreneurs amongst university students. Only then the rate of unemployment in Malaysia can be decreased through the creation of job creators, thus reducing the amount of job seekers. In that aspect, the curriculum should further stress on transmitting specific mindsets and skills that include socio-emotional skills such as self-confidence, leadership values, motivation, resilience, and self-efficacy apart from the general business knowledge and skills needed for opening and managing a business.

The Malaysian Government recognizes the value of entrepreneurial related knowledge in education systems and institutions through the establishment of national policies and strategic plans. Furthermore, it demonstrated that creating entrepreneurial institutes or agencies and involving the private sector to support and collaborate on programs only suggest that the government encourages sharing and learning of good practices on entrepreneurship. These significant initiatives established by Malaysian Government throughout several decades rest upon its role to ensure that university students are exposed to entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to fulfill the vision of becoming a knowledgeable high-income country by 2020.