Gideon Maas of Coventry University said one reason for this was that “corporates are becoming smaller in number”.
Maas, the director of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University, said training students in entrepreneurship would also produce a more versatile workforce.
“Employability is so nicely linked to the entrepreneurial side as well. If you’ve got entrepreneurial skills, you have a Plan B in case you don’t get a traditional job,” he said.
Maas noted that entrepreneurial education was still lacking in Malaysia.
He also advised entrepreneurs to be patient and not expect to get rich quick.
Maas said this at a roundtable on the local entrepreneurship landscape where issues such as changes in the school curriculum, including industry players in the learning process and incentivising lecturers to encourage entrepreneurship among students, were discussed.
The roundtable was organised by the British Council. It involved various local entrepreneurs, organisations and institutions such as TalentCorp, Taylor’s Education Group, Startup Malaysia, University Putra Malaysia and 1337 Ventures.
Maas said the aim should be to foster “transformative” entrepreneurship, focusing on entrepreneurship for sustainable socio-economic development.
He said Coventry University would soon launch a doctorate programme on entrepreneurship in Malaysia.
“If it’s social entrepreneurship for Malaysia, then we get six or seven students who can do their doctorates on that because then you’d get deeper information and not just superficial information.”
He added that this was to provide more information and case studies for future planning of entrepreneurship in the country.
“We don’t want to educate people about the history of entrepreneurship. We need to see how we can apply that at the end of the day,” he added.
He also called for a mindset change among local entrepreneurs, adding that “short-term orientation” – where entrepreneurs expected immediate returns – was a challenge.
“They set up a business and expect to be a millionaire the next day. There is a lot of impatience.”
However, he said, in comparison with other countries, Malaysia was very “ideally positioned” for transformative entrepreneurship.
“The country is not far behind and not far ahead. The fact that we’re going to have entrepreneurial strategy for the country is a nice push,” he said, adding that Malaysia was also in the midst of a technological revolution that would spearhead the industry.
He praised the entrepreneur development ministry for creating a policy framework for entrepreneurship within Malaysia.
Last November, the ministry launched the National Entrepreneurship Framework (NEF), consisting of 21 strategic objectives grouped into four strategic thrusts for various sectors.
The NEF is said to be a guideline for a more comprehensive National Entrepreneurial Policy, expected to be launched in the middle of this year.