Entrepreneurship education: Impact on knowledge and skills on university students in Malaysia

Abstract

Entrepreneurship Education is deemed as an essential element in Malaysia’s quest to become a high income developed country. In doing so, the Ministry of Education has given emphasis on developing holistic, entrepreneurial and balanced graduates as one of the ten Key Focus Areas in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025 for Higher Education. Hence, Entrepreneurship Education (EE) is made as a compulsory subject for undergraduates in The National University of Malaysia (UKM). New approaches and technologies are incorporated into the teaching and learning of EE in line with digitalization of learning. This paper reports on the effectiveness of the teaching and learning approach in EE course towards the knowledge and skills of the undergraduates. A pre and a post survey were distributed to the same set of students (n=1350), before the execution of the course and upon its completion. A paired-sample T test was done on the pre and post-test using SPSS. The analysis points out that there is no significant knowledge acquired by the students. However, there is a significant improvement of entrepreneurial skills which incorporate business ideation, marketing, sales and cash flow, and project management. The findings suggest that the new teaching and learning approaches are effective to enhance entrepreneurial skills among undergraduates. This should be a basis to further explore and improve the way EE is taught in UKM, so that both knowledge and skills can be gained by undergraduates, and thus producing entrepreneurial graduates as envisioned in the Malaysian Education Blueprint.