PUTRAJAYA: A total of 4,060 graduates have taken up entrepreneurship as their career in the three years since the Education Ministry launched its Higher Education Institute Entrepreneurship Development Policy.
In a statement yesterday, the ministry said the implementation of the policy, launched in April 2010, as well as its three-year strategic plan 2013-2015, had been spurred by the setting up of the National Higher Education Entrepreneurship Council (MKPTN) in 2011.
The council’s functions included driving the long-term development of an entrepreneurship culture at institutes of higher learning (IPTs), as well as acting as a bridge between IPTs, academics, the government, entrepreneurs, industries and
alumni.
“More than 30 per cent of IPT students have been exposed to entrepreneurial knowledge and skills through programmes in the first three years since MKPTN’s establishment,” the statement said.
After chairing the council’s meeting yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said MKPTN was the best platform for the ministry to build an ecosystem where IPT students could grow to become entrepreneurial-minded graduates.
“We also need to raise the involvement and cooperation between industry and IPTs to strengthen the IPT internship programmes.”
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, handed appointment letters to 15 new council members during the meeting.
The new members included the ministry’s second secretary-general, Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang, SME Corp chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim, Nelson Franchise founder Datuk Nelson Kwok and Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Husni Salleh.