Over 100 students accompanied by their parents, teachers and supporters attended the County Final of Carlow County Enterprise Board’s Student Enterprise Awards at IT Carlow last night. The event gave the students an opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurship and a chance to represent their County at the National Final in Croke Park in April.
Mr Michael P Kelly, CEO of Carlow County Enterprise Board, addressed the gathering:
“This is the 16th anniversary of Carlow County Enterprise Board’s participation in the Student Enterprise Awards, and to date over three thousand students throughout the County have taken part and enthusiastically embraced enterprise.
The Board continues to be greatly encouraged at the consistently high standards demonstrated by the students, both in the detail of their business plans and the quality of the products and services displayed. The County winners will receive coaching in interview skills, presentations skills and business writing from the Board and its mentors. These skills I believe will stand to these students both in their personal and professional lives. The winning business will represent County Carlow in Croke Park, our new exciting venue for the Final in April. .
The creative capacity of our young people gives us hope for the future because it is by responding to change and identifying new opportunities that will help us emerge more quickly from our current economic challenges.
This consistent high quality would not be possible of course without the dedication of the teachers, who in association with the Enterprise Board, are primarily responsible for driving the programme, motivating their students and teaching them the business skills they need, to achieve such high standards.
In Ireland today, there are more vibrant young people working and studying proportionately, than in most of the rest of the developed world. If we are serious about developing an enterprise culture and providing work opportunities for you and fellow students like you, it is imperative that we start with our young people.
From their inception 17 years ago, the County and City Enterprise Boards were assigned the responsibility for the development of an Enterprise Culture at County level, not least among the schools and colleges. Carlow County Enterprise Board has fully supported a number of enterprise schemes in schools over the years. We recognise that schemes such as the Student Enterprise Awards are invaluable as they provide an opportunity for students to research ideas, design products, implement business strategies and consider a career in enterprise.
The students here this evening, as well as those who did not get to the County Final stage have put a huge effort into their projects and derived the benefits of an excellent learning experience that they can carry into their future lives and careers. Last Year a Ministerial Council on Youth Affairs in Australia defined enterprise education as “Learning directed towards developing in young people those skills, competencies, understandings and attributes which equip them to be innovative and to identify, create, initiate and successfully manage personal, community, business and work opportunities, including working for themselves.”
I would like to thank our judges who had to make some very difficult decisions today, Eithne Condon, Brian Ogilvie, Jacqui McNabb and Chris Winters.
Again this year, IT Carlow have provided all of us with the most appropriate of venues for budding entrepreneurs as well as excellent support in organising this event.. I would like to thank in particular the Director, Dr Ruardhi Neavyn and his staff.
A final word, for the parents. You can be very proud of the achievements of your children here this evening. Enterprise as a way of life is becoming more and more important and the encouragement that young people receive at home plays a vital role in developing the entrepreneurial culture while offering them an option to employment. Schemes like the Student Enterprise Awards encourage a spirit of enterprise and innovation among our young people, key ingredients I believe for the future development of our local economy and in our ability to compete and succeed on the world stage.
Thank you for listening and enjoy the rest of the evening”
The overall winner of the County Finals were five students from Presentation College, Askea, who designed and marketed a device for protecting headphones. An innovative and well marketed product, Rap-IT is run by Stephen O’Callaghan, Paul Heffernan, Hugo Hughes Doherty, Paul Farrell and Michael Stapleton. The innovative nature of the product has already come to the attention of IT Carlow, who have expressed an interest in working with the students. The students will represent County Carlow at the National Finals, in Croke Park in April. For further information contact Carlow County Enterprise Board, or see www.carlow-ceb.com |
