Abstract

Empowering Human Capital through Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Training (CETP) Project for Rural Entrepreneurship Model (REMODE) in Freshwater Industry in Kelantan, Malaysia

Mohd Rafi Yaacob, Roselina Ahmad Saufi, P. Yukthamarani a/p Permarupan, Azlinda Shazneem Md, Shuaib and Nur Shuhada Ahmad Shaupi

One of the six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) of Malaysia is to raise the living standards of low income households. The Vision 2020 which inspires Malaysia to be a developed country will not be meaningful if there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Realising this the government is taken bold initiatives, aiming to eradicate poverty by enhancing and sustaining the productivity of low income households. While the Government of Malaysia has made significant progress in reducing the number of low income households, yet 4% of the citizens is identified as extreme poor. The Rural Entrepreneurship Model (REMODE) for freshwater industry which is spearheaded and pioneered by Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) is an attempt to empower human resources in rural area through the means of entrepreneurship. The uniqueness of the program is it utilizes the existing ecosystems and empowers human resources of selected community by developing and nurturing entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship accordingly. The first REMODE entrepreneurship program will be conducted in Kelantan, one of the poorest states in Malaysia and where a majority of the poor Malays comes from. Availability of fresh water areas in the said state provides vast and untapped opportunities in freshwater industry. After deliberation, a potential viable project identified is the Red Tilapia Farming, judging from abundance of idle lands available as we as technicality and costs of rearing the fish are within the reach of local community. Developing a Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Training Project (CETP) is a prerequisite of the success of the said model. In other words CETP is a trajectory of entrepreneurship of the said industry. This project shall focus on four tiers. First tier is to conduct the social-impact assessment (SIA) and second tier is to develop training need analysis. Third tier is to develop training modules and the last tier is to implement CETP. The complete circle of the programme will take 5 year time. Against the above background the aim of this paper is to share CETP, by so doing knowledge regarding empowerment of human resources of local community. In addition suggestions from readers will be considered to ensure this project will be a successful one.