Business-friendly Singapore breeds few entrepreneurs
FEATURE by Audrey Ang
The Singapore government’s pro-business initiatives appear insufficient to encourage more entrepreneurship activity in Singapore.
Entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea. This is certainly the case in Singapore. Most Singaporeans simply go through the traditional education system and scour for jobs in the market after graduation. Starting a business is seldom a first-choice option for them.
This is a perplexing phenomenon as Singapore ranks first in East Asia and Pacific, and forth in the world in terms of the ease of doing business in the country, according to reports from The World Bank in 2011.
Such reports suggest that Singapore is fertile for entrepreneurship activity but why does the situation here reveal otherwise?
Several have suggested that the Singapore education system is largely responsible for low activity in the local entrepreneurship scene.
“In school, students are taught to be good employees and how to impress the boss. There is just so much emphasis on getting good grades because these good grades get you good jobs. It’s conditioning,” said Eng Chua, a 50 year old Senior Manager.
“I don’t really know how to start a business on my own. We never really learnt anything about it in school!” added Jenny Koh, a house wife and mother of two children.
To promote entrepreneurship, schools now include entrepreneurship-related modules in their curriculum to foster interest and teach the basics of starting a business. Temasek Polytechnic has a compulsory course titled “Basics of Entrepreneurship” for Business students, to expose them to key elements of entrepreneurship.
NUS provides six different Technopreneurship modules in their attempt to capitalize on the booming technology industry. These modules encourage students to come out with new technology-related ideas and how to commercialize them profitably. They were introduced in August 2006.
Unfortunately, not all NUS students are impressed with these newly introduced Technopreneurship modules. Some students feel that it is too focused on technology but take it nonetheless, as these are the only available entrepreneurship classes in school.
Technological innovation, New product development and Entrepreneurial marketing are some of the Technopreneurship modules offered in NUS.
“I would prefer to learn entrepreneurship in general. I want to start my own company in the Food and Beverage industry and Technopreneurship classes are not really relevant to me,” said Chua, an NUS student taking a Technopreneurship minor.
Apart from official classes on entrepreneurship, co-curricular activities revolving around entrepreneurship are gaining strong presence in schools too.
Colleges and tertiary institutes run entrepreneurship clubs and courses. NUS entrepreneurship Society and Start-Up@Singapore are one of the most active and influential student-run entrepreneurial clubs in Singapore.
These institutes hold business plan competitions annually with attractive cash prizes that go up to a hundred thousand dollars. The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (SMU), Start-Up@Singapore (NUS) and Ideas.inc Business Challenge (NTU) are some examples.
These initiatives promoting entrepreneurship are highly encouraged and supported by the government.
The Singapore government recognises that entrepreneurship is pivotal in order to broaden and strengthen the country’s economic base. Local enterprises complement and support MNCs as well as attract them here.
Entrepreneurship is also known to promote creativity, innovation and diversity. These are commonly agreed traits that Singaporeans lack.
Placing a stronger emphasis on practicing entrepreneurship, the government provides a slew of attractive incentives for Singaporeans to start-up. These include government grants and support, introducing entrepreneurship-related curriculum in schools and planning entrepreneurship-related events.
Despite these initiatives from schools and government, the entrepreneurship scene in Singapore is not as promising as expected. Most of the time, overseas participants of Singapore’s major business plan competitions makes up half of the contestants.
“Business has very high risks. I think my children are more suited to work in companies,” said Koh.
Koh is one of many parents who are unsupportive of their children going into the business realm.
Youth are also sceptical about grants that the government provides. Some worry that these grants come with many strings attached.
These fears explain why government initiatives seem to be making little impact in entrepreneurial activity in Singapore.
“Starting a business requires a relatively large amount of money and it is very risky too. I would rather stay in a stable job unless I know that I have the finances to back me up in case I fail in business,” said Tiffany Lim, a graduate in search for a banking job.
Singapore’s risk-adverse culture does not complement well with entrepreneurship. Such mentality needs to be addressed before entrepreneurship can take flight in Singapore.
Changing mindsets of Singaporeans will require some time and effort from the government. The government’s attempts at using education to create the shift in mindset may be a very good start.
The Singapore government’s pro-business initiatives appear insufficient to encourage more entrepreneurship activity in Singapore.
Entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea. This is certainly the case in Singapore. Most Singaporeans simply go through the traditional education system and scour for jobs in the market after graduation. Starting a business is seldom a first-choice option for them.
This is a perplexing phenomenon as Singapore ranks first in East Asia and Pacific, and forth in the world in terms of the ease of doing business in the country, according to reports from The World Bank in 2011.
Such reports suggest that Singapore is fertile for entrepreneurship activity but why does the situation here reveal otherwise?
Several have suggested that the Singapore education system is largely responsible for low activity in the local entrepreneurship scene.
“In school, students are taught to be good employees and how to impress the boss. There is just so much emphasis on getting good grades because these good grades get you good jobs. It’s conditioning,” said Eng Chua, a 50 year old Senior Manager.
“I don’t really know how to start a business on my own. We never really learnt anything about it in school!” added Jenny Koh, a house wife and mother of two children.
To promote entrepreneurship, schools now include entrepreneurship-related modules in their curriculum to foster interest and teach the basics of starting a business. Temasek Polytechnic has a compulsory course titled “Basics of Entrepreneurship” for Business students, to expose them to key elements of entrepreneurship.
NUS provides six different Technopreneurship modules in their attempt to capitalize on the booming technology industry. These modules encourage students to come out with new technology-related ideas and how to commercialize them profitably. They were introduced in August 2006.
Unfortunately, not all NUS students are impressed with these newly introduced Technopreneurship modules. Some students feel that it is too focused on technology but take it nonetheless, as these are the only available entrepreneurship classes in school.
Technological innovation, New product development and Entrepreneurial marketing are some of the Technopreneurship modules offered in NUS.
“I would prefer to learn entrepreneurship in general. I want to start my own company in the Food and Beverage industry and Technopreneurship classes are not really relevant to me,” said Chua, an NUS student taking a Technopreneurship minor.
Apart from official classes on entrepreneurship, co-curricular activities revolving around entrepreneurship are gaining strong presence in schools too.
Colleges and tertiary institutes run entrepreneurship clubs and courses. NUS entrepreneurship Society and Start-Up@Singapore are one of the most active and influential student-run entrepreneurial clubs in Singapore.
These institutes hold business plan competitions annually with attractive cash prizes that go up to a hundred thousand dollars. The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (SMU), Start-Up@Singapore (NUS) and Ideas.inc Business Challenge (NTU) are some examples.
These initiatives promoting entrepreneurship are highly encouraged and supported by the government.
The Singapore government recognises that entrepreneurship is pivotal in order to broaden and strengthen the country’s economic base. Local enterprises complement and support MNCs as well as attract them here.
Entrepreneurship is also known to promote creativity, innovation and diversity. These are commonly agreed traits that Singaporeans lack.
Placing a stronger emphasis on practicing entrepreneurship, the government provides a slew of attractive incentives for Singaporeans to start-up. These include government grants and support, introducing entrepreneurship-related curriculum in schools and planning entrepreneurship-related events.
Despite these initiatives from schools and government, the entrepreneurship scene in Singapore is not as promising as expected. Most of the time, overseas participants of Singapore’s major business plan competitions makes up half of the contestants.
“Business has very high risks. I think my children are more suited to work in companies,” said Koh.
Koh is one of many parents who are unsupportive of their children going into the business realm.
Youth are also sceptical about grants that the government provides. Some worry that these grants come with many strings attached.
These fears explain why government initiatives seem to be making little impact in entrepreneurial activity in Singapore.
“Starting a business requires a relatively large amount of money and it is very risky too. I would rather stay in a stable job unless I know that I have the finances to back me up in case I fail in business,” said Tiffany Lim, a graduate in search for a banking job.
Singapore’s risk-adverse culture does not complement well with entrepreneurship. Such mentality needs to be addressed before entrepreneurship can take flight in Singapore.
Changing mindsets of Singaporeans will require some time and effort from the government. The government’s attempts at using education to create the shift in mindset may be a very good start.