Over 1,000 Wicklow students enter Enterprise Programme
SECONDARY students across County Wicklow will be hoping their entrepreneurial ingenuity will help them secure a spot in the grand final of the Local Enterprise Offices’ Student Enterprise Programme.
As an ambassador for the programme – not to mention a former participant – Wicklow-man and Leinster and Ireland rugby star Josh Van Der Flier was on hand to launch the Student Enterprise Programme. Also present was the Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen, and the Head of Enterprise at LEO Wicklow, Vibeke Delahunt.
Over 1,000 students from 16 secondary schools in Wicklow are taking part in this year’s Programme in the hope of making the national finals in Croke Park on May 1.
The programme sees students from first year to sixth year set up and run their own business and find out what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur by taking part in this 8 month long enterprise education learning programme. The programme runs from September to May, and students get to do everything a real life entrepreneur would do, from coming up with the business idea to marketing, sales and preparing a business plan.
At the end of the programme in May, one student business from each region will compete at the national final in Dublin for the ‘Student Enterprise of the Year’ award.
Wicklow has a strong track record in the programme and local students have brought home national titles in the Intermediate and Senior categories in recent years. Cillian Scott, a pupil of Colaiste Chill Mhantain in Wicklow town, was the national winner of the Intermediate category in 2017, while Luke Byrne, from Coláiste Craobh Abhann in Kilcoole, developed a simple silicone band called Headphone Helpers and took the Senior title in the national competition in 2016.
Josh Van Der Flier, said: ‘Having a good grasp of business will stand by you at any age and in any profession and that’s why the Student Enterprise Programme is such a great initiative by the Local Enterprise Offices. I know from having been involved myself at school how great it is to learn how to create that idea, make it happen and then make sales from scratch.
‘I certainly didn’t win any awards for my business, but it gave me a great knowledge of how a business works at an early age and the thousands of students who take part will always have that,’ he said.
Ms Delahunt said that the aim of the Student Enterprise Programme is to ‘instil that little bit of entrepreneurship in every student’ that takes part.
‘The Local Enterprise Offices work closely with the schools to help spark their ideas but also ground them in what will help them make sales. These skills are invaluable and to see the amazing ideas, year on year, many of which have become viable businesses, is inspirational not only to their fellow students but to anyone involved in business and entrepreneurship,’ she said.
This year’s programme will see two new pilot competitions across the junior, intermediate and senior categories.
The first, the ‘My Entrepreneurial Journey’ pilot, will be run in the junior and intermediate cycle and is open to any students involved in the wider competition. It requires them to map out the life of a successful entrepreneur and what it takes to be your own boss.
In the senior category there is a new ‘Most Creative Business Idea’ section. Under the theme ‘Go Green: Be Sustainable’, students can push their most innovative ideas, without having to produce a product or service and it is open to all senior students taking part in the wider competition.