Exploring entrepreneurial intentions, motivations and obstacles among final year students of UiTM Pahang / Musramaini Mustapha, Siti Aishah Mohamad and Ilyani Azer

Nowadays, cultivating entrepreneurship has become a vital agenda in most countries. Entrepreneurship improves the standard of living in the society by creating job opportunities and contributing to the development of the country. The Ministry of Education (MOE) in collaboration with the Higher Learning Institutions has undertaken various efforts to shape the minds and intentions of students to become entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the level of intentions and motivations to be an entrepreneur among final year students. The sample of this study consists of 34 selected final year students from different courses of study who have attended Kursus Asas Keusahawanan (KAKS) organised by the Malaysian Academy of SME & Entrepreneurship Development (MASMED) of UiTM Pahang. The main objective of this paper is to explore a better understanding of the intentional and motivational factors that could inspire students toward entrepreneurship. In order to capture the true scenario toward entrepreneurship among them, the barriers to entrepreneurship are also considered. Therefore, this study also investigates the major obstacles to the development of future entrepreneurs among final year students. The results show that UiTM Pahang students have high intentions and motivations to be an entrepreneur, but the financial factor becomes the obstacle for them

Intention And Motivation Toward Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has become an important agenda in the Malaysian Education System. The Malaysian government has started to embark on entrepreneurship development among students. It is proven with huge budget allocated by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in order to drive entrepreneurship activities among the students in the universities. All activities conducted are to increase students’ intentions and motivation to be entrepreneurs. It is very important to the university to know about the final year students’ intentions to choose entrepreneurship as their profession in the future. MOHE targets about 6,000 graduates to become entrepreneurs in 2013-2015 from the implementation of Entrepreneurial Strategic Plans 2013-2015. Due to that, this study was conducted to identify the intentions and motivations toward entrepreneurship among the final year students from two UiTM campuses (UiTM Pahang and UiTM Melaka). The overall results showed the intentions to be entrepreneurs among the students from two campuses were positive. UiTM Pahang final year students were motivated to be entrepreneurs because they wanted to be their own boss, and the UiTM Melaka final year students wanted to realize their own dreams to become entrepreneurs. The students’ intentions and motivations towards entrepreneurship are very important not only to the universities, but also for the nation and the country as a whole. These findings may assist UiTM Pahang and UiTM Melaka to create more opportunities for their students to get involved in businesses by continually supporting entrepreneurship development. Besides, the aim of MOHE to produce 6,000 entrepreneurs within 2013-2015 can be achieved

An automatic traffic cones dispenser and collector system

This project report is about to develop an automatic system for dispense and collect the traffic cones by using manipulator which is robot arm. The development of the robot arm which is five degree of freedom is the most important part in this project in order to make this system become an automatic system. A microcontroller PIC18F46K22 is used as the brain part of the robot arm and C programming had been used to programme the microcontroller. For the five joint parts of the robot arm, three different types of motor had been used which are cube servo, dc motor and servo motor to represent five degree of freedom of the robot arm. The sensor that had been used in this project is potentiometer which is used for measurement to measure the position needs for this robot arm. The size of traffic cones used is reduced to the smaller size which is compatible with the size of the robot arm in this project

Adoption of electronic payment system in Islamic microfinance institutions

Advancements in technology have affected financial services all over the world including in Malaysia. As the financial service industry is now dealing with the electronic payment (epayment) system, the paper-based retail payment system is considered costly, time-consuming and inefficient. The e-payment system fills in the gap of the traditional payment system by providing efficient and affordable services. Financial institutions, particularly Islamic micro-finance institutions (IMFIs) are prompted to implement the e-payment system due to the strengths of this system. Micro-enterprises can create huge potential by implementing the system which is able to give a big impact to the financial services industry in Malaysia. However, not many studies have highlighted the adoption of e-payment among IMFIs. This study aims to analyse the e-payment services offered by IMFIs by reviewing and identifying the issues and challenges in adopting the system. It also provides suggestions for the improvement of e-payment adoption by the IMFIs. A critical review of previous studies was conducted to achieve these aims. The result is expected to contribute to the enrichment of knowledge in digital financial services and will be useful for IMFIs to continuously improve their services

Environmentally conscious behavior among Malaysians consumers: an empirical analysis

This paper aims to investigate the influence of demographic and psychographicv variables on environmentally conscious cosumer behavior (ECCB)v in the context of Malaysian consumers. A survey was developed and administered. generating a total sample of 319 respondents across the country. The preliminary results indicated that all of the variables examin ed were significantly correlated to ECCB, expert for income. Later the analysis from the regression highlighted that only age, gender and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE)were significant predictors to ECCB. The findings confirmed that, in terms of psychographic variables, PCE has been proven to be more accurate and significant determinant than environmental concern (EC) for segmenting and explaining different segments and characteristics of pro-environmental behavior .These findings may assist Malaysian policy makers in formulating actionable decisions related to environmental education and protection.The finding also allows marketers to use marketing and awareness-raising campaigns to encourage consumers to choose environmental friendly products

Integrated marketing communication : A study of selected Malaysian public and private institutions of higher education

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is efficient in adding value to the management strategies by sending clear and consistent messages about an institution in every contact point, thereby, enabling the improvement of institutions of higher education's (IHEs') reputation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ascertain the strategic processes of IMC and their relevance to the Malaysian IHEs. The method of quantitative analysis was used to observe the level of IMC implementation, barriers in implementing IMC strategy and leadership styles in the selected Malaysian IHEs. The IMC four-stage framework and six components of transformational leadership theory served as the basis of the study. The study found that all four administrators of the selected Malaysian IHEs claimed that their institution have implemented all four stages of the IMC framework (100.0%), whereas none of the four educators of the selected Malaysian IHEs claimed that their institution have implemented all four stages of the IMC framework (0.0%). The lack of budget (28.57%) and functional silo (28.57%) appear to be the main barriers concerning IMC implementation in their institution. The leadership style in the selected Malaysian IHEs was interpreted by at least one transformational leadership component (62.5%). In overview, leadership that supports an open system is required in the selected Malaysian IHEs in order to support open and honest communication policies, whereby every employee is able to communicate between them and customers to convey a message on their institution which will then be oriented towards a "one -voice" communication

MALAYSIAN ESL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE PRO-ELT PROGRAMME

This article discusses the Pro-ELT programme which addresses the needs of ESL teachers in improving the quality of their teaching. The paper describes the extent of how effective the Pro-ELT programme has been, in preparing teachers of English Language in equipping them with effective teaching skills and enhancing their mastery of the language so as to increase learners’ motivation to learn the English Language and consequently facilitating learners’ mastery of the language. Interviews were conducted with Malaysian school teachers who have already undergone the Pro-ELT training organized by the Ministry of Education for teachers of English. The findings indicated that the training was received well by a few respondents, who found that not only had their teaching skills improved and their confidence to teach increased, but their mastery of the language had also somewhat improved and their learners reportedly enjoyed their lessons more now that their techniques of teaching had undergone improvisations. A few recommendations were given by the teachers on how the Pro-ELT programme can be made more effective in the future.&nbsp

Assessing the effectiveness of conventional notice board in universities’ information delivery / Roslilee Ab.Halim...[et al.]

The conventional wooden notice board is widely used in most universities all over the world as a tool to make an-nouncement or deliver latest information to students. However, as the information technology (IT) is advancing, it changes the way we live, communicate, learn and do business as well. As the young generation embraced technol-ogy and became attached to it, universities or higher education institutions had to keep up with the transformation in ensuring daily activities run smoothly. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of information delivery in higher education institutions. Do these young IT savvy students go and read announcement or information from the notice board or do they opt to read them from the virtual notice board? Do the announcement or information updates on the notice board reach the students or do we have to develop a friendly virtual notice board that could be accessed from anywhere? The population of this study consists of students from Univer-siti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pahang. Six diploma programmes were randomly chosen and a total of 356 ques-tionnaires were distributed. The selection of sample was based on stratified random sampling technique. The SPSS Version 18.0 was used to conduct data analysis. Data was analyzed for descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and percentage

Penularan negatif mutu perkhidmatan institusi perubatan negara di laman

Profesion dalam bidang perubatan lazimnya menjadi satu profesion yang disegani, dan dihormati. Namun begitu, kebelakangan ini terdapat kemunculan gelaran dan tohmahan yang tidak elok ditujukan kepada para pengamal perubatan melalui laman sosial. Keadaan ini nyata bukan sahaja membimbangkan, tetapi juga boleh mencalarkan imej institusi perubatan, juga menimbulkan salah faham antara para pengguna laman sosial yang lain. Ini kerana, status-status sebegini yang biasanya boleh dikongsi akan menjadi tular di laman sosial dalam masa yang singkat. Justeru, situasi ini telah mengilhamkan pengkaji melakukan kajian untuk mencari punca terjadinya masalah ini. Kaedah analisis kandungan bertujuan digunakan untuk memilih beberapa status peribadi laman sosial Facebook terpilih yang mengandungi ayat-ayat atau perkataan yang mengandungi unsur-unsur negatif yang ditujukan kepada institusi perubatan Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan teori Literasi Media oleh Potter (2004) yang menyatakan kekurangan struktur pengetahuan boleh mendorong kepada penyalahgunaan media. Hasil daripada dapatan kajian mendapati tujuh punca yang dikenal pasti iaitu, tidak memahami proses rawatan, tidak memahami fungsi setiap jabatan di institusi kesihatan, kurang profesional, tidak sabar, masalah komunikasi, tidak tahu akan kewujudan akta-akta yang melindungi para petugas institusi perubatan, dan kurang literasi media. Bagi mengatasinya, setiap individu, terutamanya pengguna laman sosial dan pihak institusi perubatan perlu memainkan peranan masing masing dalam mencari maklumat, menambah, dan menyebarkan menerusi media, agar lebih bermanfaat untuk kebaikan bersama. Kajian ini diharap mampu mengubah persepsi negatif masyarakat terhadap institusi perubatan negara, di samping melahirkan masyarakat yang lebih berhati-hati dalam menyebarkan maklumat

Technology Integration to Promote Desire to Learn Programming in Higher Education

The use of technology integration is the way of innovation in today’s world-class learning. Technology integration is a combination of technologies such as computers, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, digital cameras, the internet, and more in the practice of daily lecture sessions. Technology integration could help the process of learning especially for courses that considered as tough by the students. Therefore, educators need to be aware of the choice of methods or approaches so that teaching and learning are conducted in meaningful ways. Programming courses are compulsory for students in Faculty of Information Sciences and Technology, National University of Malaysia. However, some students find it difficult to excel in programming courses. In this study, technology integration in learning programming courses challenges the limitations of student opportunities in solving real problems lead to inconsistently use of the expertise and skills. In addition, the challenge of learning programming leads students to generate rote learning. Hence, technology integration in learning programming should be appropriate with the application of technology and applying meaningful learning so that the technology integration will be effective and meaningful. This study is conducted to propose and verify a technology integration framework for learning programming courses. Stratified Random Sampling through quantitative study method is used which involving 109 respondents. Quantitative data are analyzed using multiple linear regression method. Based on previous studies, five factors have been identified namely learning technology, learning competence, technology implementation, meaningful learning and contextual learning that would affect students’ desire to learn programming courses. The results discover that all the factors have significant relationships in influencing the desire to learn programming courses among undergraduate students for the faculty. This study is expected to assist educators and administrators to apply and improve the use of technology integration in meaningful learning for programming courses