Development of Human Capital: A Case Study of the Program Tunas Niaga in Terengganu

Program Tunas Niaga is a program for the development of human capital by inculcating awareness about the importance of entrepreneurship in the national economy to secondary school students. This program does not only provide knowledge and entrepreneurial skills to students, but also help them to make career transition after completing the program and their studies. Thus, this paper aims to measure the knowledge and entrepreneurial skills of secondary school students who have participated in the Program Tunas Niaga. This study chose quantitative methods using instruments to measure the level of knowledge and entrepreneurial skills of students. In addition, an unstructured interview method is used to find out the problems faced by students and methods of solving the problems when they participated in the Program Tunas Niaga. A total of 379 students who participated in the Program Tunas Niaga in the State of Terengganu were involved in this study. The study found that students agreed they have gained the knowledge and skills of entrepreneurship after joining Program Tunas Niaga. Results of the AVM post hoc Tukey test also found significant differences, with regards to the entrepreneurial knowledge, between students whose fathers are working in government and private sectors. In addition, the study also found that there are a few schools that are not actively running the program and a few participants failed to attend the program because they were busy with other assignments. These problems would not nourish the potential and talents of students as they faced difficulties to participate in the activities of the Program Tunas Niaga. It is hoped that this study will be able to stimulate the organizers of the Tunas Niaga Program and its movers to play a more active role in conducting school entrepreneurial activities so that students can do work to produce economic value.