National award for Belmullet students at Student Enterprise Programme finals

BUDDING entrepreneurs at Our Lady’s Secondary School, Belmullet, have been honoured with the ‘One to Watch’ award at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals in Mullingar.

Their Erris students were honoured for their student enterprise called ‘Easy Carrier’, which sells portable handholds to relieve discomfort when carrying heavy plastic shopping bags. The products can be stylised to suit the customer’s needs or desires.

Three Mayo schools were among the were 81 student businesses in contention across three main categories in the final Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students.

Each student enterprise was challenged with creating, setting up and running their own business, which must show sales of their service or product. The judging panel included business owners and representatives from enterprise agencies and associated bodies. 

Ballinrobe Community School took part in the Senior competition with ‘Fly Fitness’ while St Louis Community School, Kiltimagh entered the Intermediate competition with Owen’s Landscaping.

All three schools were supported by the Mayo Local Enterprise Office.

John Magee of the Mayo Local Enterprise Office said that The Student Enterprise Programme showcased ‘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 pet apps and seaweed harvesting and some amazing winners across the board,” Mr McGee said.

“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 23/24 we hope to see some of our next great wave of Irish business leaders and global entrepreneurs emerge.”

Over 28,000 students from almost 500 secondary schools across the country took part in this year’s Student Enterprise Programme.

Peter Burke TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, congratulated the students who took part.

“Some amazing businesses and entrepreneurs have come from this programme – the majority did not win any prizes but are still running successful businesses today. So, to those of you who won something today, a huge congratulations, but most importantly, to you all, this is the first step on the path, you are the entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future and everyone here today is excited to see what you do next,” Minister Burke said.

The Student Enterprise Programme is open to students of all ages at secondary level, with three separate categories - Junior (First year), Intermediate (Second and Third year) and Senior (Fourth, Fifth and Sixth year, LVA, LCA and Youth Outreach).