Developing entrepreneurial competencies of Biology Study Program students through a business unit on plant tissue culture training

Abstract

Student entrepreneurship must be developed through lecture sand direct training in entrepreneurial activities. Consequently, a business unit should be established. This activity would establish a new business unit of plant tissue culture (PTC) training and apply the entrepreneurial competencies of students of Biology Study Program. This activity could be useful in improving the quality of graduates. The methods followed some steps include selecting entrepreneurial students, establishing the business unit, training, mentoring, and evaluating. Students' entrepreneurial skills were evaluated by observation and the data were descriptively analysed. The 12 biology students were elected as research subjects. The established business unit was named Sasana Kultura, which provides four types of consultation and technical training packages related to PTC. It was found that in 2017 the Sasana Kultura had started running by serving nine training packages. After being trained and mentored in Sasana Kultura, students generally understand and are skilled in some aspects of entrepreneurial competencies, include communication, interpersonal relationship, creativity, innovation, and business management. On the average, students' entrepreneurial competencies reached the sufficient category. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the Sasana Kultura business unit could improve the entrepreneurial competencies students.