JAKARTA: Universities are urged to update their curriculum to create more entrepreneurs, instead of producing graduates bent on becoming civil servants or private sector employees in Indonesia.
Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Minister, Teten Masduki, said this here on Sunday, as reported by the Antara news agency.
"The CSIS (Centre for Strategic and International Studies) survey states that more than 70 percent of young people want to become business players.
"This is an important thing for universities, especially the faculty of business and economics, to redesign (the curriculum) to prepare (the students to become) entrepreneurs," Teten said.
With a revised entrepreneurial curriculum, universities can prepare more-upgraded micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), he said and revealed data from the ministry estimated about 73 percent of young Indonesians aspire to become business players instead of employees.
Teten added with the support of universities, MSMEs could upgrade themselves to produce products based on innovation, technology, and sciences.
Every year, Indonesia yields 3.5 million new job seekers who graduate from school to university levels, with 1.7 million of them holding bachelor degree.
"With Indonesia's economic growth, which averages five percent each year, only two million jobs can be provided," he said.
Because of this, the ministry has prepared a program targeting creating one million new entrepreneurs, considering that the percentage of Indonesian entrepreneurship is still 3.18 percent of the total MSME players of 64 million.
He also urged universities to collaborate with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and utilise the Matching Fund Program from the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry to create research results that MSMEs can commercialise.