TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Entrepreneurship enters all faculties, hoping to generate resilient graduate
What will you do as soon as you graduate from college? Some may continue studying, some may opt to pursue their dream jobs while others choose to set up their own business or provide jobs for others
Change Size
What will you do as soon as you graduate from college?
Some may continue studying, some may opt to pursue their dream jobs while others choose to set up their own business or provide jobs for others.
For the latter case, being an entrepreneur is not a task that can be accomplished overnight.
During the recent award ceremony for young entrepreneurs, Vice President Boediono urged the need for an entrepreneurship program in all education faculties, not just to the schools of economics.
There are six state universities that are ready to implement entrepreneurship subjects into their curriculum. They are the University of Indonesia (UI), Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, the Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) in Surabaya, the Bandung Institute of Technology's School of Business and Management and Padjadjaran University (Unpad) in Bandung and Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).
Director general for higher education at the National Education Ministry, Fasli Jalal, said that although the government gave full autonomy to universities to make the subject compulsory, he believed it would later generate better graduates.
"By taking the subject, students can takes the values of entrepreneurship, such as risk-taking and independence, to their chosen fields in the workforce," he said.
He added that the values could be applied to bureaucratic, social or academic entrepreneurships.
Wiku Adisasmito, director of partnership and business incubator at the UI, said that the entrepreneurship curriculum would begin later this year.
"We're in the progress now, drafting a detailed scheme for the new curriculum. It is going to be a compulsory subject," he said.
Apart from that, he said, the UI also had an independent entrepreneurship program that trained and guided students interested in starting businesses.
Under the one-and-a-half year-old program, students from any discipline are prepared with theoretical and practical skills for entrepreneurship. They are trained on how to make a business plan, make applications and develop marketing strategies.
"We invite prominent professionals to share their experience with students, sharing their tips and tricks on how to become an entrepreneur," he said.
"Some students have shown good progress with their business," Wiku said.
He also noticed that in starting their business, some also asked friends to help or join an existing micro business.
Currently, there are 230 students in the program. They are undergoing tests before they are granted between Rp 1 million (US$100) and Rp 8 million, as capital.
Wiku added that the amount of the grant was based on the students' business suitability.
Also, Fasli said, entrepreneurship programs offered by the universities would also be valuable to expand their businesses.
"This will make it easier for students to acquire a bank loan, usually requiring a minimum of two years' experience and a promising business plan," he said.
To support the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government has relaxed some lending rules, including the cutting of lending rates and extending loan restructuring periods.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) records that MSMEs contribute 55.6 percent of the country's gross domestic products (GDP) and employ 90 million workers of 104.87 million. It has also been said that they were resilient during the recent financial crisis.
Sandiaga Uno, vice chairman of Indonesia Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) for SMEs, said that to increase the number of SMEs in the country, some changes needed tackling, such as conventional thought on entrepreneurs.
He said that many people were scared of failure regarding starting a business.
"This attitude must change. Failure is also part of being an entrepreneur."
Sandiaga hopes that with many entrepreneurship programs on campuses, the number of entrepreneurs who see businesses as opportunities will increase.
"The younger generation is now exposed to advanced technology and have solid access to knowledge on how to run a business. Their chance at surviving in business is also bigger and better," he said.
He said for starters, businesses in the creative industry sector would be ideal along with business in mass-consumption products.
"What's also promising is business in the tourism sector, such as laundry services for hotels for example," he said.
Meanwhile, the importance of studying an entrepreneurship at school is not only acknowledged here, but in other countries.
Robert Lawton, the President of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, US, said during his visit to Jakarta recently that those interested in setting up a business would gain a lot from learning about it at school.
"It combines learning about skills or challenges that you may face, how to take advantage of opportunities and undertaking practical work," he said.
"That's what makes our entrepreneurship program one of the strongest in the country."
In addition, he said that LA was a great place to have a strong entrepreneur program because it had lots of smaller industries students could undertake work experience in.
