Students from Galway have taken multiple prizes at the national finals of this year’s Student Enterprise Programme.
The finals of the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) initiative took place on Friday in Croke Park.
Supported by LEO Galway, local students won three awards including 2nd place in the Junior Category, Best Commercial Potential and The Smart Business Award.
Orlaith Connors came 2 in the Junior Category, working under the guidance of her teacher, Marie McNamara from Gort Community School.
Her student enterprise was called ‘Orlaith’s Derrybrien Honey’, selling 100% organic, raw, unblended honey, hand-harvested sustainably from her own family farm in Derrybrien.
At Intermediate level, Rian Coyle, Jack Nolan, Charlie Carroll, Adam Forde and Aaron Keane, from Coláiste Éinde in Salthill, took home the ‘Best Commercial Potential’ award with their business Galway Engravers.
They sell laser engraved, customisable wooden products made from sustainably sourced wood.
In the Senior Category, Tomas McGrath from Presentation College Athenry won the Smart Business Award.
His business idea would remove the need for printed till receipts for customers, replaced by a QR code at the sales counter.
These can be retrieved if required for product returns and will expire in line with a retailer’s returns policy.
There were 82 student businesses in contention across three main categories for the Final in what is Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students.
Head of Enterprise at LEO Galway, Valerie Kelly, said that year on year, the programme continues to showcase the very best of Irish ingenuity and entrepreneurship amongst our secondary school students.
“This year produced a varied selection of businesses, from agricultural products and homemade gifts to products that were built on our unique ability to tell compelling stories.
“We see every year that the National Finals are not an end point for our student entrepreneurs, but a stepping stone on the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
“From our class of 22/23 we will see some business leaders and global entrepreneurs of the future emerge.”
The National Final students, who competed across three categories, Junior, Intermediate and Senior, were all in attendance on the day exhibiting their businesses which were judged by a team of national business experts and mentors.
Each student enterprise was challenged with creating, setting up and running their own business, which must show sales of their service or product.
Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 350,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start a business and grow a business.
