Pictures: Top quality Student Enterprise county final sees schools set to represent Kilkenny

Teenage entrepreneurs from Presentation Secondary School and Coláiste Abhainn Rí will represent Kilkenny at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals on Thursday, May 9 in Mullingar Park Hotel.

The students all took part in the Kilkenny county final on Thursday, which was held at Lyrath  Estate Hotel. Over 1,000 students from 11 schools took part in the annual programme locally with 110 students making it to the county final.

In the junior category, the students representing Kilkenny at the national finals is Robbie Lyons from Berry Burst at Coláiste Abhainn Rí. The company makes homemade jams in five delicious flavours.

Muireann Bibby and Tom Carey from Gloine Mara at Coláiste Abhainn Rí will be representing the county at the finals in the intermediate category. This company create beautiful handcrafted canvas art gifts from the sea.

In the senior category of the competition, Kilkenny will be represented on May 9 by Niamh Brett, Danica Tervit Kruger, and Hazel Maher from The Little Lost Collection at Presentation Secondary School. The Little Lost Collection is a story book collection created to educate children on the animal welfare situation in Ireland and teach them why it is important to adopt pets.

In the My Entrepreneurial Journey competition, two Coláiste Abhainn Rí students won in their categories, Meabh Moylan of Tastalious Ltd in the junior category and Jamie Power from Pollin8 in the intermediate category.

“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," said Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council Michael Doyle.

"The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and team-work, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers."

Aileen McGrath, Head of Enterprise (Acting), of Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny congratulated the students.

“We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Kilkenny with over 1000 students from 11 local schools taking part this year. Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck on Thursday, May 9, and we will all hope to be there to support them.”  

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 at Mullingar Park Hotel on May 9.  

Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.