Schools across Galway are being encouraged to sign up for this year’s Student Enterprise Programme, the largest of its kind in the country.
The programme for second level students is now in its 21st year and over 300,000 students have taken part since it began.
Every year around 25,000 students participate from almost 500 schools across Ireland, competing in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories.
Participants learn how to create and run their own business, picking up key skills along the way such as ideation, marketing, finance and sales and it is open to all secondary schools.
Recent ambassadors for the programme have included Derval O’Rourke, Josh Van Der Flier and Limerick All-Ireland winner Sean Finn.
The programme is run through the network of Local Enterprise Offices, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the local authorities, with local coordinators in every area to support teachers and students through the year of the programme.
The programme is open to all secondary school students from 1st year through to 6th year.
In 2021, an estimated 1,100 students from 29 schools across Galway city and county took part in this annual programme.
Over the years, Galway representatives have had success in the national finals across the various categories.
Last year, LEO Galway’s county winner, Know your Phone from Holy Rosary College, Mountbellew, won 1st Runner Up prize in the Senior Category in the National Finals held in the Helix in Dublin.
Valerie Kelly, Senior Enterprise Development Officer with LEO Galway explained that students from 1st year to 6th year get to set up and run their own business and find out what it is really like to be an entrepreneur through this 8 month long enterprise education programme.
“It’s a great learning experience for the entrepreneurs of the future as they learn how to plan, set up and run their own small business.
“Schools across Galway city and county have always been enthusiastic and successful participants in this programme, so we encourage as many as possible to get involved again this year.”
