Schools Don't Breed Entrepreneurs
By Seen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei’s educational system coeds to foster a culture of entrepreneurship among the youth so that they can contribute to the country's economic Development.

There is no significant effort in making entrepreneurship as a common feature or widespread subject in Brunei's national curriculum, Dr Habrizah Hussin, a Universiti Brunei Darussalam lecturer, said in her award-winning research paper.

Dr Habrizah, who had just won Best Paper for `Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit and Creating Enterprising Culture in Brunei Darussalam: The Challenges Ahead’ at the Asean Graduate Business/Economics programme's academic seminar, said the educational system must play a central role in enhancing economic progress.

"Encouraging the enterprise spirit in young people is a precondition to achieving progress - at least in the longer term - in employment, growth, competitiveness and innovation," she said.

In an interview with The Brunei Times, she stressed that it is "high time" that Brunei looks into the aspect of promoting the entrepreneurial spirit to younger generations as a way to diversify the country's economy.

"There is a need to change the mindset and attitude to nurture creative individuals that are able to face challenges ahead," said Dr Habrizah, who is from the UBD's Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies.

The educational system becomes an important vehicle in producing society's future entrepreneurs, thus the system must respond to the requirements of the marketplace and society, she said.

Dr Habrizah, a Malaysian, who has been teaching at UBD for four years, said engaging young people requires reaching into `spaces' they occupy, including digital leisure and environmental pursuits, schools and universities, workplaces and family.

"To create an enterprise culture, the aim is to drive (a) national campaign that is delivered locally and regionally," she went on to say.

She stated that entrepreneurship should be considered as a general attitude that can be applied in all working activities and in everyday life.

"Everyone may at some stage need to become an entrepreneur, or to display entrepreneurial behaviour," she pointed out.

The research paper, which involved a survey of 985 students and 15 in-depth interviews with other target audience, took about six months to complete.

"I wrote the research paper so that it will expose youth to other jobs, and not just government jobs," she said.

Based on the findings of her research, 69.7 per cent of respondents preferred a government job, compared to only 7.9 per cent who were interested to work with the private sector.

On the other hand, 17.8 per cent said they would opt to be self-employed or become a business owner.

The most commonly stated motivation for starting a business was `to be my own boss'.

Meanwhile, Sopiah Husaini, president of Brunei's Women's Business Council, has also backed the idea of promoting an entrepreneurial culture at an early age in schools.

"They should have programmes and activities even before they go into secondary level, to inculcate the habit," she told The Brunei Times.

She added that there is the expectation of working with the government, but employment is now scarce, and the current generation does not have the entrepreneurial mindset to get jobs.

She said that an entrepreneurial mindset will contribute to nation-building activities and teach youngsters not to be too dependent on the oil and gas sector.

The 7th Annual Meeting of the Asean Graduate Business/ Economics Programmes Network, which took place in Indonesia last month, is an organisation whose members are Master's Programmes in Business and Economics of Asean University Network member universities. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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