Students making the waves with enterprising ideas!
“Magic mirrors, customised playing cards, modified computer cards, digitalised photos and animation sweep the 2011 Student Enterprise Awards prizes
The County Final of the Kerry County Enterprise Boards’ Annual Student Enterprise Awards was held on the 1st March 2011 in the Carlton Hotel in Tralee.
Outstanding participation levels saw over 55 mini-businesses being set up by local Second level schools involved in the competition. The competition promotes business idea development and business structure, sourcing of finance, marketing/sales and the presentation of a formal business plan.
The students progressed through the establishment of a mini company which trades over a period of a number of months. An exciting and rewarding programme, students get to experience the realities of entrepreneurship from developing a business idea to producing a product, researching the market, promoting the business and managing the books.
Prizes were awarded at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level. The winners of the County Student Enterprise Awards in all categories go forward to the National Finals to be held in Croke Park on 14th April. The Student Enterprise Awards bring a taste of real life business to the classroom.
Margaret Murphy, Programme Organiser stated that “the judges were highly impressed by the high standard of product, the level of innovation and the confidence of the students in presenting their proposal”.
The winners of the Senior Category was “Magic Mirrors”, a team from the Presentation School, Tralee. This consists of a magnetised mirror which fits on the inside door of furniture lockers. This involved the design, manufacture and sale of a range of samples
The winners of the Intermediate Category was “Grian Dingle Peninsula Playing Cards” with a project consisting of the production of playing cards with images of the Dingle peninsula.
Aidan Murray, commented “this project demonstrated practical and innovative product development. I have not seen this product on the market and its viability and prototyping should be investigated further.”
Junior level winners were “P&S Crafts” from Pobal Scoil Chorca Dhuibhne with the production of a range of crafts.
Other prizes were for Best Stand, Most Innovative Product and Best Business Plan.
The Presentation Secondary School won the most Enterprising School Award and was presented with the Cantillon Perpetual Cup.
Tomás Hayes, CEO of Kerry County Enterprise Board, stated that “I am constantly surprised at the level of innovation, planning and development of all 55 projects in this year’s awards. Kerry County Enterprise Board has delivered this programme for nine years. This is a real life exercise. It involves idea generation and actual trading. Profits are generated and finance is secured. It is a taste of business and all the issues involved from finding the right idea, funding the business, collecting the money and building the team. I must commend the teachers for their efforts and our mentors for their support. Our judges had a very difficult task!”