THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION OF UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR – TEKNOPUTRA ALUMNI

Abstract

Purpose: The unemployment rate among graduates is considered high in Malaysia despite concerted efforts taken by the Malaysian government in resolving the issue.  If this issue is not tackled immediately by the government, the unemployment rate may soar and hence lead to social problems in the country. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention of Universiti Kuala Lumpur TEKNOPUTRA Alumni. Methodology: An online survey was conducted to explore if there is a relationship between entrepreneurship education the graduates had received at the university and their entrepreneurial intention to become entrepreneurs. About 50 graduates responded to the survey and they consisted of male and female graduates most of who were aged between 20 and 25 with less than 2 years of working experience. The sample had ventured into service types of business while others were sole proprietors, and most of them have been involved in their business for less than 5 years. Results: Cronbach Alpha values for the reliability analysis of items for entrepreneurship education (α=0.953) and entrepreneurial intention (α=0.893) show that the items are reliable. Inferential statistics, that is Pearson r correlation was run to determine the relationship between the independent variable, entrepreneurship education and the dependent variable entrepreneurship intention. Implications:  Pearson Correlation analysis shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurship educations with entrepreneurial intention among TEKNOPUTRA Alumni. In short, this implies that most of the TEKNOPUTRA Alumni agreed that entrepreneurship education they had received at the university has influenced their entrepreneurial intention to become entrepreneurs.