ENACTUS MALAYSIA: Encouraging Student Entrepreneurship at UUM

Entrepreneurship has become a growing skill and it is a practical base for those who are interested in starting a business. Now, more universities in Malaysia have started to establish their own clubs to garner students’ interest in entrepreneurial engagement.

ENACTUS, an international non-profit organisation that focuses on community development through entrepreneurship activities. It has grown its worldwide reputation by establishing the organisation in many countries including Malaysia. They believe that every individual can contribute great impacts to the community by using the power of entrepreneurship. 

ENACTUS Malaysia at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

ENACTUS Malaysia was founded in 2000, an international non-profit organisation that brings student, academic and business leaders together. This is to benefit the power of entrepreneurial action to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. With 36 active teams in local universities, they have been running numerous entrepreneurial activities and projects guided by academic advisors and business experts in their respective campuses. 

Representing one of the universities in Malaysia, ENACTUS UUM is among the strong ENACTUS teams in Malaysia that focuses on developing the community in the northern region of Malaysia.

While assisting the community through economic activities, Enactus UUM emphasizes on preserving the environment, thus balancing between income generation, social promotion and environmental preservation.

Three Main Projects

Co&Coal

This project aims to reduce pollution caused by the improper disposal of coconut shell waste. Despite its high utilization value, most coconut shells are thrown away due to lack of awareness and proper knowledge of its disposal methods. As the discarded coconut shells are either left to rot or burnt, causing much environmental pollution, it is seen as an opportunity through this problem.

In this project, Enactus UUM recycles the discarded coconut shells by turning them into a marketable product, which is the coconut charcoal. As the project utilises the discarded coconut shells, the team managed to tackle various environmental issues while fostering entrepreneurs with this sustainable “Go-Green” concept. 

Co&Coal also provided a workshop for any parties that interested to do the activities. It is targeted towards any underprivileged community like B40 community, welfare home, and refugees.

Volunteering for Education (VE)

This project is initiated as a platform for secondary school students in Kedah to instil entrepreneurial traits. The aim is to provide a rigorous business education programme through which our volunteers (facilitators) will couch the students to have hands-on experience in running three types of business in one term.

Through this project, the team will establish a VE Buddies Club in each school to monitor the progress for VE business education programs, entrepreneurial skills in Buddies, and enhance Buddies’ soft skills. Our volunteers are enthusiastic and active university students who stand as friends and mentors, providing guidance and support to students through their journey of learning.

Aquanom

Aquaponic is a project (system) that combines both agriculture and fishery. This system utilizes the waste from fish as nutrients for plants by channelling the wastewater to the plants. The roots of plants will act as a filter that cleans the water before circulating back to the fish tank. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides are prohibited in this system as it may harm or kill the fish.

The objective of this project is to improve the standard of living of the underprivileged community in the northern region of Malaysia by implementing the Aquaponic system that is capable of increasing their income through organic farming practices

Focusing on 3Ps, Aquaponic project is capable of achieving its scopes, which are profit, people and planet. This project can help the underprivileged to generate income consistently while using minimum space and effort. Besides that, awareness of the importance of organic farming practices can also be spread among our target audience while they carry out this project. This is because the Aquaponic system is run without the use of pesticides and insecticides. Thus, our target audience will be contributing towards making a greener world while at the same time generate income.

What has ENACTUS UUM achieved?

With great contributions, ENACTUS team at UUM has secured several achievements which include:

• Top 5 of Facing Up with Social Entrepreneurship (F.U.S.E) Competition 2019
• 2nd Runner Up of ASEAN Young Entrepreneurs Challenge 2018
• 3rd Place for Enactus Malaysia National Competition (EMNC) 2018

Achievement for ENACTUS Malaysia National Competition (EMNC):

• 2014 1st Place
• 2015 3rd place
• 2016 2nd place
• 2017 semi-final
• 2018 3rd place

In 2014, Enactus UUM represents Malaysia for Enactus World Cup in Beijing. Enactus UUM successfully went to Quarter Final and at that time become the top 16 Enactus Club in the world.