As an analogy, there were 83 million active users of eBay dealing with buying-selling transactions in the whole year of 2007, with a total of 135 million registered users. Then, approximately 500 thousand active users of Second Life also spend up to US$ 1 every other day. This situation is what inspired more than 70% of high school graduates in the United States to become entrepreneurs. Coincidentally, at the same time since the year 2006, more than 2,100 colleges in the United States offer a program in entrepreneurship. When in fact, in the 1990’s, no more than 400 campuses included such a syllabus.

Strangely enough, this condition in America is the exact opposite of what’s happening in Indonesia. Until now there still is reluctance in university graduates in choosing business as their profession. The profession is regarded as having less prestige compared to working in the government and in other private sector fields. On the other hand, the studying methods developed in campuses generally do not allow the students room to think more creatively, innovatively, and to take risks. As a result, this has triggered a high level of unemployment among degree holders.

 Just imagine, according to H.A.R. Tilaar, there were 740 thousand unemployed university graduates in the year 2007. There is a need for reorientation within degree holders from the job seeker nuance to that of job creators. Based on the data, tertiary level educational institutions should start cleaning up their act in order to rise to the challenge. This is because universities hold a significant role in creating educated businesspersons, which are entrepreneurs with the potential to create at least 20 jobs in the next five years.

Educated entrepreneurs are hoped to be the motor of change, progress and the rise of nation’s economy. They will not only be able to answer the nation’s questions, but are also capable of increasing country welfare. Educated entrepreneurs are strong visionaries in building their business and their environment. They are the businessmen that struggle for the cause of finding space to grow and develop. With knowledge and skill in hand, they are able to observe and analyze opportunities and transform them into business ventures.

History has proven the developed societies share a strong entrepreneurial characteristic. They represent the main development machine able to change an underdeveloped society into a modern, dynamic and prosperous nation. South Korea is one example of how entrepreneurship is able to turn a less known country into a developed nation. South Korea in the 1960’s had a Gross Domestic Product per capita of around US$ 80, the same level with Ghana and Sudan. In a span of 30 years, its PDB per capita has reached US$ 10 thousand, with an approximate growth of 8.6%. South Korea’s success does not escape the fact that it was helped by the proliferation of its entrepreneurial mindset.

The question is how to plan a learning process that would molds graduates with entrepreneurial characteristics? There are three characters that are mandatory in every businessman, which are innovativeness, risk taking and pro-activeness. These three main characters can be sharpened through various interventions in the learning process. For example, students are trained to utilize a number of ideas that may seem irrelevant to solve the problem at hand. Students are forced to dare and break the shell of appointed norms, manipulate very limited information, and take advantage of what they have learnt to end with an innovative solution.

Apart from having a strong character, an educated entrepreneur should also master the art of the trade. An action learning approach should prove useful in increasing business skills. Action learning focuses a learning process through activities. This approach is a combination of the study of P and Q. The P approach emphasizes on available information, such as: data, theories and solutions to previous problems as source of study. However the Q approach draws attention to the assumption to every possible alternative, because there is no clear solution to refer to in order to solve a certain problem.

That said, action learning not only emphasizes the experience of  acquiring through undergoing an activity, but also the owning of a strong base of knowledge before facing up to the challenge. Students must not only be skilled in choosing which concepts to use in breaking through a dilemma, but should also be able to enrich the wisdom that they already have.

Educated entrepreneurs should also possess a social awareness. They should realize that every venture is only open to the possibility of survival and growth if the social environment develops as well. To practice social awareness, students may be dispatched to rural areas for a hands-on experience of solving social problems, such as taking part in programs for developing independent businesses and aiding in the training of skills, such as finance and management  and quality control, and in helping to develop distribution channels for agricultural products.

AGUS W. SOEHADI
Director of Bachelors’ Program
At Prasetiya Mulya Business School