The ‘Connecting with Kauffman –  Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ session was presented by GEW Youth Catalyst – Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia (YEM), GEW Country Host – Warisan Global Sdn. Bhd. and Leaderonomics, which has been a very supportive GEW partner since last year.

The two-hour session brought plenty of insights to representatives of different interest groups concerned with entrepreneurship in Malaysia, from students to education service providers, to larger companies and government agencies.

Event organiser and Co-Founder of YEM Michael Teoh said that Mr. Levin’s presence in Malaysia, representing the global Kauffman Foundation and with his impressive track-record as an entrepreneur, would definitely provide new perspectives and ideas for local Malaysian institutions and government agencies to groom entrepreneurial behaviour and learning among the young.

“We need to benchmark and learn from the experiences and insights of other entrepreneurs and organisations in the world, to better plan and implement strategies that can truly steer our local growth of entrepreneurs, especially the young,” said the 22-year-old entrepreneur.

During the event YEM unveiled the 550 Youth Entrepreneurs Research in Malaysia, in which 550 youths aged 20-29 were surveyed on their interests in entrepreneurship and what factors would have stimulated their involvement with the local business scene. Results showed that a majority of entrepreneurial students in Malaysia had never read any business or entrepreneurial-related course during their studies, but had since embarked on a journey to become entrepreneurs. The survey also revealed that Malaysian youths are more inclined towards launching their businesses in the service sector with retail coming second.

The session was headlined with a panel discussion on the topic of ‘Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ where panellists commented on strategies for encouraging young Malaysians to be more enterprising. The session featured Mr. Roshan Thiran, CEO of Leaderonomics, Sabrie Salleh, a young Malaysian aspiring entrepreneur, GEW Malaysia Country Host Mr. Dash Balakrishnan, Michael Teoh, Co-Founder of YEM, Mr. Michael Levin, Representative from the Kauffman Foundation. It was moderated by Daniel Cerventus, Founder of online entrepreneur media outlet – Entrepreneurs.my.

Mr. Levin sharing his thoughts about the Kauffman Foundation’s contributions to assisting young entrepreneurs develop their businesses around the world. Mr. Dash Balakrishnan, as GEW Malaysia Host, also commented on how entrepreneurship can be encouraged among the youth to make them more independent and street-smart with money.

The ‘Connecting with Kauffman –  Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ event also provided a valuable networking platform for youth leaders from public and private higher learning institutions to network with the panellists and invites guests at the event.

“Our main objective was to engage higher learning institutions and youth leaders towards the best practices set by the Kauffman Foundation and our own Malaysian GEW representatives, in order to not only inspire them to take entrepreneurship seriously, but also to build their relationships with key international organisations in the field,” commented Michael Teoh.