BY Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 15 June 2016 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM), through the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprise Development (UKM-CESMED) has been tasked with coming up with a module to place undergraduates to act as consultants with small and medium-sized companies (SMEs).

UKM-CESMED Director Prof Madya Datin Dr Shamsubaridah  Ramlee said if everything goes according to plan, the students will start their stints later this year after their academic examinations.

“We want to put our students in SMEs and micro-companies, and the employers will not feel disappointed”, she said when briefing some 50 lecturers from 10 local public universities taking part in a programme to train student entrepreneurs, in Seremban on 14^th May.

She said this Training-Of-Trainers (ToT) programme brought together the academics to take part in the course in preparation of the programme for their students when they return to their respective universities.

“You have to train them to manage their working capital and cash flow, so they must understand all aspects of the business they take part in,” she explained.

According to the ToT programme that was being implemented, the undergraduates will have to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the companies and their owners.

The programme further states that the student entrepreneurs will have to diagnose the problems of the companies and propose remedies under the supervision of their lecturers.

“It is our expertise to help the students, provide business plans, supervise the implementation and do the case studies,” she said.

Among the case studies to be done is the investigation into whether small companies pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Following this, the case study will also look into whether the GST had impacted the smaller firms.

The students and their lecturers will be guided by the modules that were prepared by accountants and vetted by CESMED.

“Quite likely, the students will have stints with micro-businesses whose core business is food, but when you ask their business model, they reply the don’t have any,” she elaborated.

She added the challenge is for the so-called ‘siswa-preneur’ to provide a proper business pelan for those companies.