Kildare students to compete in Student Enterprise Programme National Final

Local Enterprise Office Kildare has announced that winning teenage entrepreneurs from St Wolstan’s Community School, Celbridge will represent Kildare at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Final. 

The winning local students will now compete against approximately 80 student enterprises from all over the country for a place in the Top 15 shortlisted teams to make it to a live event on Wednesday 18th May at The Helix in Dublin. 

This year’s live event will not only be a special one as it’s the first in-person event since 2019, but also as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Student Enterprise Programme.

The students all took part in the Kildare Final on 30th March 2022, which was held virtually. An estimated 1006 students from 17 schools 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 24,000 students from just under 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2020 / 2021.  The programme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Finals.

In the Senior Category of the competition, Kildare’s Sarah Girvan Hendy, Saoirse Povey and Mairéad Kehoe from Horseshoes 4 U at St. Wolstan’s Community School, Celbridge will represent the county at the National Final.

In the “Most Creative Business Idea” section (senior category), Anna, Ella, Holly and Ellen from Happy Melon at Celbridge Community School came out on top.

Special guests at the County Final included Cathaoirleach Naoise Ó Cearúil, Interim Chief Executive Sonya Kavanagh, elected representatives and judges Sean Ryan, Paul Murtagh and Jane Manzor.

Speaking at the county final, Jacqui McNabb of Local Enterprise Office Kildare congratulated the students, saying “We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Kildare, with over 1000 students from 17 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 National Final 2022.  In what has been a particularly challenging couple of years 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”.

Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 300,000 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 2021 / 2022 at www.studententerprise.ie, which includes webinars, templates and interactive teacher and student resources.