NORTH CORK STUDENTS SET FOR NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP FINAL

Local Enterprise Office Cork North & West have announced that winning teenager entrepreneurs from St Colman’s College Fermoy will represent North Cork at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Final on Friday 14th May. As with last year’s event the Final will take place virtually with approximately 80 finalist teams logging in all over the country.

The students all took part in the North Cork Final on 18th of March. An estimated 450 students from 11schools took part in the annual programme locally.

The enterprise education initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country, saw over 29,000 students from just under 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2019 / 2020. The programme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Final.

In the Senior Category of the competition, North Cork will be represented on May 14th by Jamie Clancy, Jacob Hanley, Fionn O'Connell, Noah Gibbons from “Pocket PC” at St Colman’s College.

Special guests at the North Cork Final included Fionn Ferreira who previously won the Student Enterprise Programme and then went on to win a Google Award and now employs 35 in the US, despite the fact he is just 20 years old. Also speaking was Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy who was an IBYE winner and creator of the Apis Monitor.

Other speakers were mentors Christine Duggan of DMPR and Garry Lowe of Whizzkids Training and Laura Moynihan of Boherbue Comprehensive School. Laura is a 6th Year in the school but 2 years ago she and her teammates from “Smooth Remove” won the senior National Final ahead of over 25,000 participants that year and she gave this year’s entrants some great advice on how they might go about emulating that achievement.

Speaking at the county final, Kevin Curran, Head of Enterprise of Local Enterprise Office Cork North & West congratulated the students, saying “We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in North Cork with over 450 students from 11 local schools taking part this year. Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck on Friday 14th, we’ll all be logged on to support them. In what has been a particularly challenging year for students the programme has offered them an outlet outside of the usual school demands. What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business. The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and team-work, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers”.

The local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Final, taking place virtually on the 14th May.

Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 220,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start a business and grow a business. The Student Enterprise Programme also has new range of online resources for 2020 / 2021 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, which will feature regular blogs and houses a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.

Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.

ENDS

For further information, please contact Local Enterprise Office – Joan Kelleher 

Names of participating schools in Student Enterprise Programme

• Boherbue School
• CBS Charleville
• St. Mary's Charleville
• Nagle Rice School Doneraile
• Colaiste an Chraobhin
• St. Colman's, Fermoy
• Scoil Mhuire, Kanturk
• Patrician Academy, Mallow
• St. Mary's, Mallow
• CBS Mitchelstown
• Presentation, Mitchelstown

Names of winning enterprises

• Winner Pocket PC St Colman’s Fermoy
• Innovation Believe St Mary’s Charleville
• Business Plan Champion Holders Scoil Mhuire Kanturk
• Sustainability CBS Hurling Stitching CBS Charleville
• Sales – North Cork Clinikits Scoil Mhuire Kanturk
• Communication Rona Rings Presentation Mitchelstown
• Marketing Fáinne St Mary’s Charleville

About the Student Enterprise Programme (studententerprise.ie)
The Student Enterprise Programme is co-ordinated by the Local Enterprise Offices and involves approximately 29,000 students from 500 secondary schools every year. It runs from September to May and the 2020/2021 National Final takes place online on the 14th May.

Website: www.studententerprise.ie / #studententerprise / Twitter: @StudentEntProg / Facebook: /studententerpriseprogramme / Instagram: /studententerpriseprogramme