International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Competency among University Students

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Universities in Malaysia have put forth a lot of effort in developing young entrepreneurs, especially in nurturing entrepreneurial competency among the students. However, how far the presence of entrepreneurial education offered by universities has influenced the students’ entrepreneurial competency is still unknown. Thus, this research was conducted to fill up the gap. In this study, entrepreneurial education comprised of entrepreneurial training programs (TP), entrepreneurial curriculum courses (CC) and entrepreneurial co-curriculum activities (CA). Meanwhile, entrepreneurial competency (EC) was collectively measured through entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial attitudes. In order to obtain the required data, a total of 240 university students were selected from a public university in Malaysia. They were then surveyed through self-administered questionnaires. From the descriptive and inferential statistical analyses performed, this study found that: (i) students’ entrepreneurial competency level was moderately high, which indicated that majority of the students had good entrepreneurial competency level and; (ii) entrepreneurial training programs and entrepreneurial co-curriculum activities were two important factors that influenced students’ entrepreneurial competency. Therefore, this study proposed that universities should encourage students to get involve with entrepreneurship through formal and informal education which focus on hands-on practices and “learning-by-doing”. In addition, the collaboration between students and the local community is also important to develop competitive young entrepreneurs.
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In-Text Citation: (Koe, Ismail, Alias, & Badli, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Koe, W.-L., Ismail, S., Alias, N. E., & Badli, M. A. (2018). The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Competency among University Students. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(9), 559–572.