PICTURES: Kilkenny's bright young minds impress at Student Enterprise county final

Young entrepreneurs from CBC Kilkenny will represent County Kilkenny in this year’s senior category at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals on Thursday, May 7.

Students took part in the County Kilkenny Final on Wednesday, held at the Lyrath Estate Hotel and hosted by Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny. The final event was the culmination of months of hard work in schools across the county where students started and ran mini-businesses.

In the senior category of the competition, the winners were Mini Caddy at CBC Kilkenny — Tom Fenlon, Shane Burke, Dillon Brett, and Adam Trehy. TAP HERE FOR MORE KILKENNY BUSINESS NEWS

The winners in the junior and intermediate category went to Colaiste Abhainn Ri in Callan for Recharge’d — a business by Megan Bryan, Ruth Moylan, Keira Lyons, Aimee Hickey and Katie Walsh. Imogen Lawless Greene and Caoimhe O’Shea took home the first prize in the intermediate category for their business Helm Halo.

County Kilkenny has a successful track record in the student enterprise competition — Michael O’Keefe from St Kieran’s College recently won first place in the intermediate category at Student Enterprise Programme National Finals. TAP HERE FOR MORE SCHOOLS NEWS FROM KILKENNY

Speaking at the county final, Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council Mary Hilda Cavanagh congratulated all the students.

“We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Kilkenny, with students from 12 local second-level schools taking part this year,” she said.

“Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme, and we wish them the very best of luck on Friday 7, and we will all hope to be there to support them. The skills students learn in this programme, such as business planning, market research, selling and teamwork, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers.”

The local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals, taking place in Mullingar on May 7.

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 25,000 students from just under 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2025 / 2026. The programme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the national finals.

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. The Student Enterprise Programme also has new range of online resources for 2025 / 2026 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 or search #studententerprise on social media.