Entrepreneurial Education for Engineers

Abstract

Numerous discussions by members of the academia and the industry about the quality of education provided for engineers of the future show that insufficient provision of certain skills and areas of knowledge seems prevalent. There is a general feel amongst many quarters that perhaps a slightly different model of education - specifically engineering education - should be introduced. In 1999, the Malaysian government set up a new ‘breed’ of public universities called the ‘university college’ that, among a few other distinctive features, should prepare students to become entrepreneurs. At Kolej Universiti Kejuruteraan Utara Malaysia (KUKUM), preparations for entrepreneurial education for the engineers of the future are underway. Instead of the run-of-the-mill lecture-type classes on the precepts of entrepreneurship, a brand new approach is hoped to be used. Close to twenty different but related ideas of implementation has been explored. However, because KUKUM is only about one-year old, these thoughts are yet to be tested. Nevertheless, a review of the entrepreneurship education literature shows that these proposed ideas make up most of what is already implemented by many entrepreneur education providers in the world.