OVER 200 STUDENTS ATTEND AWARDS

Local Enterprise Office Louth hosted the county finals of the Student Enterprise awards last week and were delighted to welcome over 200 students to the event.

Speaking at the event, Peggy McGlynn from the county enterprise office said: ‘ The competition is an exciting and rewarding experience for young people, creating a culture where students think more readily of becoming entrepreneurs and setting up their own business in the future. It enhances their creativity, improves communication skills and provides practical uses for business studies topics.’

She said the 2017 competition saw 52 mini companies from second level schools in the county making it to county final.

Companies ranged from a Dundalk FC themed board game to handcrafted medal display packs and personalised pictures using pebbles and twigs in 3D frames. There were animal friendly bowties and bandanas for dogs to ‘Bee’ friendly seed bombs with flower seeds, a music portfolio website to natural mineral based hand blended highlighters. There were also high quality orig- inal button products to a teen health website and a published Life Skills booklet.

Food products included a confectionery company, organically produced seeds and a sole trader manufacturing healthy nutritious homemade snacks. We also had a cooler box fitted with UV lights designed to hold sports bottles and sterilise germs and bacteria located on caps of bottles. It was great to see the levels of enterprise and innovation amongst the students. Student Enterprise Awards continues to offer students the opportunity to take a business from the idea stage, through market research to production, selling, record keeping, management and finally writing a comprehensive report on their activities.

She added: ‘A big thank you to all the teachers who support and encourage these mini companies year after year and our thanks also to our judges, who are an independent panel of business expert.’ Prizes were awarded to 10 companies including ‘Donopoly’ who will represent Louth at National Finals in Croke Park in May together with Intermediate category winner ‘Cute as a Button’ from Dun Lughaidh.

Bella Nightingale, Eva Harmon, Natalia Burak, Hermione McAleer and Mahnoor Jamal, Dún Lughaidh members of the Mini Company “Cute as a Button” who won the Intermediate award winners at the Local Enterprise Office Louth, County Finals of the Student...

Dominik Bayer, Dundalk Grammar School from the Mini Company “Woodman” who took part in the Local Enterprise Office Louth, County Finals of the Student Enterprise Awards

Jessica Leonard, Sophie Pentony and Mia Twibill members of the Mini Company “Fab Frames” who were runners up in the junior section of the Local Enterprise Office Louth, County Finals of the Student Enterprise Awards pictured with their teacher Paul...

Eimear Kelly, David Crawley, Laura Watters-McGuinness, Kerrie Gregory and Holly Lambe-Sally, St. Mary’s College members of the Mini Company “Urban Edge” who took part in the Local Enterprise Office Louth, County Finals of the Student Enterprise Awards.