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Training modules

21 July, 2015 - 11:51

For this case, training provision recognizes the importance of entrepreneurial development in gaining insight into the business environment in which the business operates. The previous section provides profound justifications for the need to train new micro-and small housing entrepreneurs. In consideration of the high capital requirements for starting a business, the strategy of this course is to simultaneously equip micro-and small housing developers with managerial skills and technical knowledge. Given their lack of exposure to the housing business, people tend to associate the housing sector with high-risk production that requires high capital and involves long approval process. The aforementioned factors are among the main restrictions that hinder people from participating in this industry, thereby gradually creating a wide gap between large and small housing developers in Malaysia. Thus, the School of Housing, Building, and Planning of Universiti Sains Malaysia has formed a strategic partnership with an inspiring industry player, Maka Corporation Sdn Bhd, to offer courses on how to improve the potential of new housing developers in Malaysia. The decisive collaboration between the two parties has successfully produced basic and advanced modules for training new and existing housing developers. The main objective of this endeavour is to ‘turn the potential entrepreneurs into knowledgeable housing developers’ with marketing, management, and basic financial skills.

The first course was an introductory course on the housing development business and was conducted in June 2009. This course discusses the fundamental aspects of housing development to motivate nascent entrepreneurs to become fully-fledged housing developers. After a series of basic courses, due to high demand from the public, an advanced course was formulated to expose new developers and existing industry players to the current knowledge and industrial matters for project and business survivability. Introduced in August 2010, the advance course includes three aspects; inter alia entail industry updates, project management, and strategic management of the firm. The two-day course involves various speakers from government agencies, successful housing developers, and experienced consultants. The courses were held in select hotels in Kuala Lumpur because this capital city is a business hub for all Malaysians. The hotel arrangements and marketing of the courses were made by both parties, mainly through Internet marketing and brochure distribution. Among the courses offered, the least frequent is available once a year. The modules were reviewed and modified occasionally on the basis of the comments given by the participants to ensure the relevance of the content. The following section presents the latest module developed by the two organizations.