The Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre has recently launched the third annual BEST competition – Ballinasloe Entrepreneurial Skills Tournament.
The aim of BEST is to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in the youth of Ballinasloe, the next generation of entrepreneurs. The competition is open to all students in both secondary schools, Ardscoil Mhuire, and St Joseph’s College, Garbally Park. A presentation on the competition was given at each school recently by the BEST team. The BEST team includes the competition judges, John Power, Chris Armstrong, and Mary Molloy; Helen Kelly of the Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre; and Michael Staunton, a previous chairperson of Bacd Ltd who came up with the idea of the competition. Thomas Burke is the BEST coordinator for St Joseph’s College and Eilis Finnerty the BEST coordinator for Ardscoil Mhuire.
The students are encouraged to focus on creativity for a new business idea and closing date for applications is January 22, 2011. Application forms are available from the BEST coordinator in each school. The judges will evaluate each application and choose a number of finalists to pitch their BEST Idea to them in a Dragons’ Den style presentation during the final stage of the competition. All participants are then invited to an awards ceremony in April 2011 where the winners will be announced and a prominent entrepreneur will give a speech to the students and their parents.
The BEST winner receives a cash prize of €1,500 and runners up totalling €1,000. The competition is sponsored by The Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre and The Ballinasloe Credit Union. The winning school wins a laptop kindly sponsored by The Galway City and County Enterprise Board.
The Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre is an initiative of Ballinasloe Area Community Development Ltd (Bacd ) and is now home to 15 enterprises employing in excess of 180 people. If you are in business or thinking of starting a business in Ballinasloe the Enterprise Centre is on hand offering affordable, quality enterprise space to individual enterprises, companies, and community groups with viable business ideas who wish to become part of the Ballinasloe business community.
For more information call (090 ) 9646516 or log on to www.ballinasloeenterprisecentre.ie
