The same phenomenon also takes place in Malaysia as well. Various efforts have been put forward by the Malaysian government to encourage entrepreneurial activities, especially among youths. The importance of entrepreneurship has been the centre of attention and recognized worldwide including Malaysia.
The increasing interest in entrepreneurship in Malaysia can be seen in the current development, such as globalization and the emergence of knowledge-based industries. Entrepreneurship is seen as a possible solution to global competition and corporate downsizing which has contributed to the problem of unemployment, especially among graduates in Malaysia (Ragayah & smith 2005; Ooi, 2008). The government of Malaysia is continuously promoting entrepreneurial culture in the school, colleges and universities towards creation of an entrepreneurial and innovative society. Many entrepreneurial programs are introduced at school, colleges and universities. The support is given to individuals at school at a young age in order to motivate and build up entrepreneurial interest in them while studying e.g the “young entrepreneurs in Malaysia schools” (Mahmood & Ali, …show more content…
The programmes arranged by MECD and the ministry of higher education (MOHE) were the ones that involve the development of entrepreneurship culture in public higher learning institutions. All these programmes were implemented in the 17 public universities in Malaysia with its main purpose of exposing and encouraging greater involvement among graduates in entrepreneurship.
In addition the government provides financial aids to graduates through the Graduates Entrepreneurship Fund to help graduates ventures into new business (SME Bank annual report 2006). Having initiated these efforts, the focus of the government was on Malaysian graduates to be involved more in entrepreneurship. The Malaysia government started to promote entrepreneurship education as a career choice among the students to reduce the unemployment problems as outlined in 9th Malaysia