More than 900 students from 15 secondary schools in Mayo are setting up their own business enterprises through the Student Enterprise Programme in conjunction with Local Enterprise Offices.
The Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen T.D. officially launshed the 2017/2018 Student Enterprise Programme, which is the biggest enterprise education initiative of its kind in the country, earlier this week.
The programme is run locally every year by Local Enterprise Office Mayo and 15 schools from the county are taking part this year including St. Brendan’s, Belmullet, Gortnor Abbey, Crossmolina, Lacken Cross, Killala and St. Muredach’s, Ballina.
At the launch of this year’s initiative, Minister Breen said: “Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, more than 150,000 students have benefitted, and we want to keep nurturing Ireland’s future entrepreneurs and business leaders in the years to come. Entrepreneurship is the backbone of the Irish economy and initiatives such as the Student Enterprise Programme are key to fostering a more enterprising culture. I would encourage principals and teachers to get in touch with their Local Enterprise Office, to find out how they can get involved in the next Student Enterprise Programme.”
2017 was a particularly successful year for County Mayo, with winners in each category at the national finals of the Student Enterprise Programme.
John Magee, Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Mayo to: The Mayo Advertiser; “It is great to see so many young students and their teachers engaging in the Student Enterprise programme in Mayo year on year and we look forward engaging with our young budding entrepreneurs in the County to assist them in achieving their entrepreneurial potential. As we look to the future, the curriculum in schools is changing with more of an emphasis on enterprise in the classroom. The Student Enterprise Programme is a natural fit for teachers with new resources and supports available to schools throughout the county.”
Updates for teacher resource packs are available to secondary schools from the Local Enterprise Offices, free of charge, through the www.studententerprise.ie website.
