Local Enterprise Office Waterford has announced that Dalia Jewels, the successful student entrepreneurs from Newtown secondary school in Waterford City will represent County Waterford 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 Waterford Final on Friday March 26th which was held virtually and streamed live on the Local Enterprise Office’s Facebook page. An estimated nine hundred students from eleven schools through-out the county 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, Waterford will be represented on May 14th by Sophie Reid, Nataliya O Neill, Youki Osaki and Saoirse Delaire Staines from Dalia Jewels at Newtown secondary school.

Special guests at the County Final, hosted by Beat 102 103’s Trishauna Archer included his worship the Mayor Cllr Damien Geoghegan, Head of enterprise for Waterford Local Enterprise Office Richie Walsh, and teacher and former Waterford senior hurling manager Derek McGrath.

Speaking at the county final, Richie Walsh of Local Enterprise Office Waterford congratulated the students, saying “We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Waterford, with over 900 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 in the finals and 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.