Entrepreneurship workout develops student skills

CHATTING ON the sidelines of a job seminar at the University of Indonesia in early December,
Jobstreet Indonesia country manager Chris Antonius wanted to talk about the stiff competition
job seekers face in this country.

Chris said the number of unemployed in Indonesia today is around 9 million based on figures from the Manpower Ministry. But other institutions put the fi gure far higher, at 25million. It depends on the parameters, he added, how you count who you count.

The fact is, every job fair is packed with thousands of job seekers.

“Jobstreet can only provide 50,000 job vacancies each year,” Chris said, discussing his online recruitment company.

Since Indonesia has more than a plentiful supply of manpower, Chris said the country needs to create more demand by encouraging more investment in infrastructure, export, production and manufacturing in all industries.

The idea of encouraging investments is a good one under normal economic conditions. But in an economic crisis like we have today, promoting entrepreneurial skills becomes a realistic alternative.

A student waits for customers at his stall, selling items he thinks his schoolmates will snap up, from clocks to dolls. (YS/Kurniawan Hari)A student waits for customers at his stall, selling items he thinks his schoolmates will snap up, from clocks to dolls. (YS/Kurniawan Hari)

Several schools have introduced entrepreneurship as a full-fledged subject and have organized activities in which students can develop their entrepreneurial know-how.

Nugrohodi, a chemistry teacher at Sugar Group School, a private high school in Lampung, South Sumatra, said students should be introduced to entrepreneurship as early as possible. “I think entrepreneurship is very important for the future of our students,” he wrote in an email to youthspeak.

Nugrohodi said his school combined two approaches to make students familiar with entrepreneurship.

First, business savvy and risk-taking is handled within the standard economics course. Second, the school also organizes a cross-cutting unit of study to supplement the regular courses.

“Our school has organized events to expose students to entrepreneurship in action. The students are given a chance to come up with a business idea, try it out, and present what they
got from it.”

This approach has also been applied at Citra Kasih School in West Jakarta. Interested students are asked to present their business plan. Then the school will put up the capital for the approved plans, so students can test out the business plans during Entrepreneurship Day.

During the annual event, students often devise retail ideas, selling toys or food. The buyers are their fellow students. Other students offer services, such as car washing or cafés with live music set up in the school yard.

At the end of the event, the student who has earned the most profit from his or her venture gets the chance to have lunch with award-winning business owner Ciputra, a patron of the school.

Awards aside, all the students have fun and learn something valuable on Entrepreneurship Day.

Chris said doing business required start-up capital and patience. He added that people should expect to work hard at developing their business for at least two years before setting a break-even goal for themselves.

All too often, he said, people start a business expecting to break even—make enough profits to cover their costs—within three to six months. “It just doesn’t happen that fast,” he said.

Business-building depends on persistence, something students can learn through entrepreneurship training.