UniKL targets producing 1,000 entrepreneurs a year through Genesis
KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) is targeting to produce 1,000 young entrepreneurs a year under its ‘Genesis’ programme which began this year.
Its pro-chancellor, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said it was a holistic and integrated programme to produce technopreneurs among students of the UniKL Business School.
“Students who take the Genesis programme are encouraged to develop their own business plans by the end of the semester and if they qualify, they will be given assistance under the Business Sponsorship Scheme (SEMAi) of RM50,000 each,” he said at the officiating ceremony of the UniKL Business School@Gurney and Hari Raya Mara (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) 2016 gathering, here yesterday.
Ismail Sabri, who is also Rural and Regional Development Minister, said UniKL Business School had its own strengths with students exposed to the world of business from their first year on campus.
He said the UniKL Business School@Gurney was equipped with an ‘Entrepreneurial Business Lab’ which is an entrepreneur incubator laboratory which trains students in the real world of business.
The laboratory, he said, offered a one-on-one training as well as mentorship programme for students wanting to become entrepreneurs.
“The graduates are encouraged to come up with products and market them. Some have produced health products which are now in the supermarkets and pharmacies,” Ismail Sabri said in a press conference.
He added that Mara had also allocated RM1 billion a year to help Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the country, including university graduates.
This includes the cost for sponsoring and guiding the entrepreneurs.
Ismail Sabri also said that since it was set up in 1966, Mara had produced about a million Bumiputera entrepreneurs and was now targeting two million more in the next five decades.
Also present was Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub.