The Effectiveness of the Student Entrepreneurship Development Programme to Strengthen Students' Marketing Competencies

Universities have a strategic role in preparing graduates who are ready to work and/or become entrepreneurs. Learning activities in universities should be oriented to equip students with a set of knowledge, skills, and various soft skills needed by the job market and the business world. To realize this goal, universities should implement the Student Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SEDEP), a programme that is expected to strengthen marketing competence to support students' start-up businesses. Using a research sample determined by cluster random sampling, the population of this study consisted of supervisors, business professionals as mentors, and students who participated in the SEDEP. This study was intended to reveal the involvement of supervisors, mentors and students in the SEDEP and its impact on the development of students' marketing competence. Research data collection was carried out using a questionnaire that met validity and reliability requirements. The study revealed that the involvement of supervisors and students in the implementation of the SEDEP was in the very high category, while the involvement of mentors was in the high category. The influence of superviweres and mentors was evident in the involvement of students in implementing the SEDEP, demonstrating the strategic role supervisors and mentors play implementing the SEDEP. The SEDEP was shown to be an effective learning approach to strengthen students' marketing competencies; using the SEDEP to implement learning activities that are intended to strengthen marketing and entrepreneurial competencies is recommended.