Impact of entrepreneurship education programme (EEP) on entrepreneurial intention of real estate graduates

Abstract

In the current socio-economic context of the “risk society” characterised by uncertainty and turmoil, entrepreneurship is one of the soft skills that is important among university graduates to ensure their survival in the real world. Realising that this skill can be taught and honed in professional undergraduate programmes, many universities have made entrepreneurship education a compulsory subject to improve undergraduate’s entrepreneurship skills. The discourse on entrepreneurship education programme (EEP) revealed a number of issues being discussed within conventional professional programmes such as engineering and management. Little is known about the impact of EEP on entrepreneurship intention within less popular professional programmes such as real estate. This paper provides an insight into how the compulsory entrepreneurship course impacts the entrepreneurial intentions of graduates of a real estate programme in a public university in Malaysia. Using a mixed method approach, a questionnaire survey and interview were undertaken to elicit respondents’ views about the success of the course in terms of instilling and shaping characteristics associated with entrepreneurship. Respondents were found to be less impressed with theory, and more influenced by real-life examples and experiences when emulating entrepreneurship behaviour.