By Asmahanim Amir
Pix Ikhwan Hashim

CYBERJAYA, 20 August 2015 – Undergraduates have been encouraged to try their hand at  entrepreneurship even as they are still students.

Higher Education Secretary General, Dato Seri Ir  Dr Zaini Ujang said students should  look for business opportunities as they can generate income.

“In the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) there are 10 thrusts highlighted and the first thrust is to produce a holistic graduate, entrepreneurial and balanced.

“It is meant to encourage the graduates to create their own jobs rather than seeking employment,” he said in his speech at the MIT Global Start-up Labs Malaysia (MIT GSL) 2015 closing ceremony, here on August 13, 2015.

He expressed hope that the students will create job opportunities in commercial activities.

“This programme is a step forward for students to become successful entrepreneurs,” he said.

Dato’ Zaini also expressed pride with the success of the programme and hoped that the organisers would tweak the programme further, so that the students who join this will be more proactive in producing products that can be marketed.

A total of 35 students from 16 public and private universities took part over a period of six weeks starting June 30 and concluded on August 15.

The participants were final year students from Computer Science, Engineering and Multimedia disciplines.

The programme focused on  creating fundable start-ups, nurture a generation of young technology entrepreneurs, to build capacity and partnerships with partner universities, to create a platform to attract students to ICT entrepreneurship and to inspire technology innovation.

At the end of the programme, the participants presented their mobile apps innovation for each group. A group of four students from University Putra Malaysia (UPM) calling itself QTime emerged as champions with the Best Project Award and audience’s choice award which entitled them to a cash prize of RM4,500, trophy and certificates.

The MIT GSL Programme was organised by the Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) and Entrepreneurship Unit, Ministry of Education and the National University of Malaysia (UKM) as the host for this programme.

Also present at the closing ceremony were Pro Vice-Chancellor of UKM, Prof Dr Nor Ghani Md Nor, Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development (UKM-CESMED) Assoc Prof Datin Dr Shamsubaridah Ramlee, Director of Talent Division MDEC Muhammad Imran Kunalan Abdullah and representatives of the  Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC).