Four National Titles for Young County Roscommon Entrepreneurs
Roscommon Local Enterprise Office (LEO) have extended their congratulations to students Joshua McCormack from Kilbride and Evan McNeil from Oran on winning the overall national senior title and two other awards at the recent national Student Enterprise Programme (SEP) awards in Croke Park. In all, the county enjoyed unprecedented success in four categories.
LEO, who support small, medium and start-up businesses in the county, have also extended their congratulations to students Olivia, Rachel and Dean Beirne representing St. Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen who won the Intellectual property award in the intermediate category for their business idea ‘Chopping Away’.
Both Joshua and Evan, both students of Roscommon Community College, represented Roscommon following their success in the county finals of the competition, which is run by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) network.
As well as winning the overall award, both Joshua and Evan were also successful in the Social Media and Intellectual Property categories of the senior competition. This Tuesday (May 16th) the students will also represent the county in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Programme national finals, also in Dublin.
Joshua and Evan’s unique business idea was inspired from seeing people climbing into wheelie bins to try and compact their rubbish manually which led them to create a device known as the ‘McCompactor’ which enables users to easily compact rubbish in standard wheelie bins.
The steel fabricated device will work on all standard household wheelie bins and to date, the students have sold over 100 to date through their social media channels with increasing interest for their product.
Speaking following the awards announcement, Head of Enterprise in LEO Roscommon, Louise Ward paid tribute to both Joshua and Evan as well as Oliva, Rachel and Dean Beirne. She praised the students’ ingenuity and enterprise in what was a first overall national title for the county in the prestigious awards.
“The success of Joshua and Evan as well as Olivia, Rachel and Dean’s success is a huge achievement, not just for the students themselves but also for their families and their schools. All of us in Roscommon LEO extend our heartiest congratulations to all of our worthy winners.
“The SEP awards are critically important in showcasing the spirit of enterprise and initiative, so evident among all of our participants, since we hosted our county finals last year. The awards are a gateway to future business opportunity, empowering tomorrow’s businessmen and women.
“Roscommon’s success in these awards is proof of the vibrant business and enterprise culture that is nurtured and supported by our LEO office. We provide practical, hands-on support and advice for new and emerging businesses as well as offering training and support to established small and medium sized businesses across the county.
“Last year alone we allocated 650,000 in supports to start-up and established businesses provided over 300 clients with one-to-one mentoring and delivered 33 trading online vouchers to local businesses.”
“To win not just one, but four national titles in this year’s awards is a tremendous reflection of the county’s vibrant young entrepreneurial sector. These successes auger well for the future development of our flourishing local business and enterprise sectors”, concluded Ms. Ward.
Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 350,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start and grow a business. The Programme also has a new range of online resources for 2022 / 2023 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, featuring regular blogs and a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.
SEP is supported by Enterprise Ireland and local authorities with the competition commencing last September in secondary schools across the country with close to 25,000 students taking part. The Programme is funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country.
The SEP initiative is funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country. To date, over 350,000 take part in the programme since it began 21 years ago.
About the Student Enterprise Programme (studententerprise.ie)
The Student Enterprise Programme is co-ordinated by the Local Enterprise Offices and involves approximately 25,000 students from 500 secondary schools every year. It runs from September to May and the 2022/2023 National Final takes place online on the 5th May.
Website: www.studententerprise.ie / #studententerprise / Twitter: @StudentEntProg / Facebook: /studententerpriseprogramme / Instagram: /studententerpriseprogramme
