The role of Malaysian Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development (MEeD) in increasing the number of entrepreneurs among graduates. / Noor Azura Hasran

The study focuses on the role played by the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development (MEeD) especially towards the Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme. The Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme being initiated to assist more graduates to be entrepreneur and self-employed. This role needs great efforts and effective implementation in order to achieve the goals of producing more entrepreneurs. Although the graduate entrepreneur program aims to provide proper guidance and job opportunities to the graduates, some drawbacks are highlighted especially regarding the graduates entrepreneurs fund's loan policy. The findings shows the participation rates for the year 2000-2006 are not consistent The inconsistency shows that there are no particular aims on how many participants each year in graduate entrepreneurs' programmes. The fund provided for this programme was also not fully utilized for the past 10 years. The inefficiencies somehow show that not many graduates receive financial aid in operating their business. MEeD must never stop from creating more activities and schemes to cater the world that are technological driven. Entrepreneurship should be in many forms and in various industries. Students and graduates must have the passion and great knowledge as well as skills to beat the competitive edge. They need to have great interests and strong discipline in order to' successfully become entrepreneurs.