PROGRAM FOR PROVIDING TRAINING AND FUNDING ASSISTANCE FOR BEGINNER ENTREPRENEUR: EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION WITHIN UNIVERSITAS TERBUKA

Abstract

This paper discusses the impact of Universitas Terbuka (UT) policy in encouraging students to become entrepreneurs through the Financial Assistance Program for Beginner Entrepreneurs. In 2014-2016, UT has collaborated with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs cq Entrepreneurship Development Affairs, Human Resources Development Sector to hold activities to facilitate students as beginner entrepreneurs through training, mentoring and providing funding. Each batch of Program participants was monitored for 2 years, starting from the receipt of the student's business proposal to be financed up to the next 3 semesters. The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs provided three days of entrepreneurship training for priorly selected students. At the end of the training, students who wish to start a business were asked to submit  business proposals which will be assessed for its feasibility to be funded. The development of this proposal was carried out with the assistance of qualified experts. Proposals that passed the assessment were entitled to financial assistance for entrepreneurial development with a maximum value of IDR 25,000,000 per student. At the end of the second year of Program implementation, about 75% of the students who took part in this program were running well, but after that there was no further monitoring, either by UT or the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs. After nearly a decade in progress, it is necessary to see how the program's impact has on the efforts of the students participating in the program. For this reason, an evaluation of the program's impact was carried out. The impacts evaluated include sustainability, magnitude, and business profits. Of the 324 students who received assistance in 2014-2016, 37 of them filled in the list of questions sent and were willing to be interviewed. Of the 37 respondents, 7 (19%) respondents still have the same business as the one funded by the program, 21 (57%) respondents changed their business, and 9 (24%) respondents stopped their business. However, for businesses which is still ongoing today, there has been an increase in assets that can reach hundreds of times. It is not easy to give an assessment of the usefulness of the Program because the entrepreneurs who can be evaluated are limited. Entrepreneurs who are still and even developing their businesses provide input for improving the entrepreneurship encouragement program for students, including ongoing coaching and monitoring for a minimum of 5 years.