North Cork Students Set for National Entrepreneurship Final
Cork County Council’s Local Enterprise Office Cork North and West have announced that teenage entrepreneurs from Patrician Academy will represent North Cork at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Final on Thursday 9th May.
The students all took part in the North Cork Final on Tuesday the 27th of February held at Springfort Hall Hotel. An estimated 700 students from 14 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 28,000 students from just under 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2022 / 2023. The programme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Final.
In the Intermediate category, the students representing North Cork at the National Final are Bill Palmer, Alec Fitzpatrick and James Kelly O’Connor from Fitzpatrick Firewood at Patrician Academy.
In the Senior category of the competition, North Cork will be represented on May 9th by brothers Eoin and Mark Sheehan from Sheehan Exterior Clean also at Patrician Academy.
The local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Final, taking place in the Mullingar Park Hotel on the 9th of May.
Special guests were invited to the North Cork Final to present the awards, including Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Frank O’Flynn and Sharon Corcoran, Director of Service Economic Development, Enterprise and Tourism at Cork County Council.
Speaking at the final, Sharon Corcoran, Director of Service Economic Development, Enterprise and Tourism at Cork County Council congratulated the students, saying
Sharon Corcoran
Director of Services - Economic Development, Enterprise & Tourism
“We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in North Cork with over 700 students from 14 local schools taking part this year. Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme, and we wish them the best of luck on the 9th of May. 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 acquired during this programme, such as business planning, market research, selling and teamwork, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers.
North Cork has had success over the years with Smooth Remove from Boherbue CS going on to win first place in the national awards in 2019 in the highly competitive senior category and Wrap it Up from Presentation Secondary School, Mitchelstown, picking up the Best Display Award. Boherbue also won the National Innovation award in 2022 with “Pole Pals”.
Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 380,000 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 2023 / 2024 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, which will feature regular blogs and houses a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.
Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.