How the Entrepreneurship Programs Change the Mindset of UTM Students

RAGGAM WAAD SHAHER M

In this article, we discuss how entrepreneurship programs change the mindset of UTM students for them to be able to develop an entrepreneurial character and spirit. This article discusses how the UTM environment prepares students to have an entrepreneurial mindset. Lastly, this article presents a few examples of how UTM trains and improves UTM students’ entrepreneurial thinking skills through the clubs and opportunities offered.

Technopreneurship Seminar course provides an extension to the existing course “Introduction to Entrepreneurship”. It allows UTM students to analyze and evaluate the business opportunities using the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous subject. The course offers its students to consider business planning, self-assessment, idea generation, and operating strategies to start a new small business.

By the end of the Technopreneurship Seminar course, students should be able to successfully develop necessary components of the entrepreneurial attitude such as research, recognize and access business opportunities. Students can also use analytical, critical thinking, and decision-making skills to determine the feasibility of a business concept. Students gained hands-on experience with conducting research, developing, writing, evaluating, presenting, and defending segments of a business plan throughout the course. Technopreneurship Seminar course teaches UTM students to look for resources in the form of other individuals who can assist them on their journey. The ability to partner, learn from customers, and be more observant goes a long way in increasing an entrepreneur’s efficiency. Technopreneurship Seminar course also gives students the opportunity and access to join and participate in several seminars organized by UTM XCITE. UTM XCITE offers students a chance to discover other entrepreneurial success stories and share sessions through such activities. Students are exposed to know more about talented individuals and their journeys and tips and lessons learned from their mentors to apply these concepts to start their entrepreneurial journey.

Sustainable entrepreneurship demands a unique mindset and specific personality attributes, notably among UTM students, such as responsiveness, charm, adaptability, public participation, and profit-sharing, which are not required for socially responsible behaviour. As a result, an ecologically accountable person feels a sense of responsibility to society and a desire to contribute to its long-term progress through their actions.

UTM provides its students with many experiences that they can use to grow their entrepreneurship skills. Next, we will discuss how UTM provides learning opportunities through various mediums to help its students learn vital entrepreneurial skills such as leadership, communication, and financing.

UTM has many clubs that provide students with a path to acquire various skills. An excellent example of that is the UTM AIESEC club. AIESEC is the largest youth-led organization in the world and provides a global platform for youth leadership development, a necessary skill to acquire in becoming an entrepreneur. This development is enabled through volunteering and interning abroad. AIESEC also provides a Global Entrepreneur program that allows graduates and undergraduates an opportunity to gain professional working experience in a start-up abroad. UTM AIESEC club provides students with a platform to ramp up their leadership experience and grow their abilities in various areas through global interactions.

UTM efforts does not stop there. TEDx UTM, which began in 2017, is a dedicated community that hosts a series of lectures to bring people from all disciplines and cultures together to express their ideas under one roof. People can learn skills and knowledge that took others years to learn in just a few hours. Giving this platform and the opportunity to exchange ideas, TEDx UTM hopes to make a difference in people’s lives. Every year, the event is held with a different theme. The TEDx UTM programs are local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience, allowing for participating and organizing students a chance to grow their soft skills.

UTM also has clubs dedicated to improving and training leadership and communication skills with more focus on public speaking. The best clubs to offer that type of training are the Toastmasters clubs. In UTM, there are two toastmasters clubs, UTM ACES Toastmasters Club and UTM toastmasters, for the undergraduates and postgraduates, respectively. Toastmasters International (TI) is a non-profit organization that provides clubs with education on becoming successful leaders and communicators, focusing on training and guidelines. UTM Toastmasters clubs follow TI, offering a friendly environment that allows members to grow their communication and leadership skills. Members of those clubs grow confident in their abilities through practice and appropriate learning materials.

Finally, UTM Centre for Student Innovation & Technology (UTM XCITE) is a collaborative hub for creative and entrepreneurial learning that inspires UTM communities and entrepreneurship development organizations to collaborate on innovative and entrepreneurial projects. UTM XCITE provides events, activities, competitions, and programs transforming UTM students into the entrepreneurial workforce and creative technology entrepreneurs.

In conclusion, this article has looked at how entrepreneurship programmes help UTM students develop entrepreneurial character and spirit. It explains how the UTM environment helps students develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Finally, this article has shown how UTM prepares and improves UTM students’ entrepreneurial thinking skills through various clubs and chances.

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