IRELAND’S LARGEST STUDENT ENTERPRISE PROGRAMME IS LAUNCHED

Olympian and entrepreneur Derval O’Rourke announced as ambassador

Ireland’s largest student business programme has been launched by Damien English T.D., Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail.  The Local Enterprise Office’s Student Enterprise Programme held a virtual event to celebrate as it enters its 18^th year, with over 220,000 students having taken part since it began in 2003.

The Final usually takes place in Croke Park, but as with the 2020 Final earlier this year, the event will take place again online on Friday 14^th May 2021.  A new ambassador was also announced for the programme, Olympian and entrepreneur, Derval O’Rourke.  The world champion hurdler and three-time Olympian made the jump from the track to the world of business, setting up her own fitness, health and well-being site, Derval.ie, now with over 8,000 sign ups.

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 29,000 students from almost 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2019 / 2020.

The students will compete across three categories, Junior, Intermediate and Senior and judging takes place virtually via electronic submissions.  Each student enterprise is challenged with creating, setting up and running their own business, which must show sales of their service or product.

The programme will also include two additional categories that students can enter.  These are the “Most Creative Business Idea” video competition for the Senior category and the “My Entrepreneurial Journey” category for the Junior and Intermediate categories.

Damien English, T.D., Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, said; “The Student Enterprise Programme has been one of the most successful initiatives in helping students foster a passion for entrepreneurship.  Many of the students that have taken part have gone on to set up their own fully fledged businesses, some before they have even left school.  Ireland has always had a proud tradition of entrepreneurship and hopefully these students will bring that passion with them as they figure out how they want to make an impact in the world.  While not everyone can take home the top prize, what the students learn in taking part will be invaluable to them in the years to come.”   

Derval O’Rourke, Olympian, Entrepreneur and Ambassador for the Student Enterprise Programme, said; “I have always loved the Student Enterprise Programme and if it was around in my time I would have been first to sign up.  Starting your own business is one of the toughest things you can do, and when you try to do it with no business knowledge whatsoever, then it’s ten times harder.  For these students to be learning these skills at this age, and understanding how a business should work, how to make sales, how to market it, they have transferable skills they can bring forward in life.  Even looking back at some of the recent winners and finalists you think ‘wow, what a great idea’, so I can’t wait to see what this year’s programme will bring.

Michael Nevin, chair of the Education Enterprise Committee of the Local Enterprise Offices, said; These are unprecedented times for our students and this year’s competition is giving them the opportunity to create businesses that can make an impact in the current real-world scenario.  We are encouraging students to come up with business ideas that are adapted to the existing enterprise challenges and that are sustainable in today’s economic climate.  With this in mind the programme has changed and even though the way it is being delivered (which is mainly online), is different, the students will still be able to work together in their school setting to develop their businesses.  This will be our most challenging year to date in the Student Enterprise Programme’s history, but it will be exciting to see what new world businesses our students bring to the table.”

Earlier this year, the 2019/2020 Student Enterprise Programme National Final winners in the Senior category were Handy Hose Holders from CBS Thurles in Tipperary for their practical milking parlour hose solution that has since been picked for national listing by Glanbia.  The Intermediate category was won by Aim It Board from Loreto College in Dublin City, while Sofatop from Ballybay Community College in Monaghan took the Junior category award.

Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 220,000 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 2020 / 2021 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, which will feature regular blogs and houses a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.

Ends

2020/21 SEP National Social Media Awards

The Student Enterprise Programme is delighted to announce that we will once again be awarding three prizes in the area of social media at the National SEP Final on Friday 16^th May 2021.

The awards are open to all students nationwide taking part in the SEP 20/21, not just those who make the National Final.

Students will be judged on their performance on various social media platforms for their student enterprises over the course of the year – how well they interacted with their customers on social media, how creative they were with their social media campaigns and how they maximized social media for the betterment of their enterprises.

Award Categories:

• Most Effective Social Media Campaign             €250
• Most Creative Use of Social Media                     €250
• Most Interactive Business on Social Media      €250

How to Enter:

To enter, simply complete the social media award entry form and return to the address provided on the form by 16^th April 2021.

Please note: The social media awards are marked independently of the main marking scheme at the SEP National Final and therefore student enterprises that do not operate social media accounts for their business are not disadvantaged in any way as a result.

The Man In The Mirror!

– a lookback by a former SEP winner on his journey to entrepreneurship

Hi. I’m Jack and I took part in the Student Enterprise Programme in 2019, winning the ‘Best Commercial Potential’ prize at the National Final with my company Mirr (www.mirr.tech). Well over a year later and I’m still working on Mirr and we are preparing to step into the world of manufacturing.

Mirr is a touch screen smart mirror. This was new technology and the business was driven on innovation, but through the process of bringing it from a cool piece of engineering to a product I had to make sure it was something people actually wanted. Not that I was just making something for me.

This distinction of who the innovation was for was perhaps the most valuable learning I gained from the experience; the value of feedback and testing in innovation.

All businesses are selling solutions to a problem -and whether you’re coming up with a solution to an unsolved problem, or offering an alternative to an existing solution, you’re still innovating. The easiest way to make sure you’re on the right track is to test your solution and take in feedback from your users. The best way to start this is to clearly outline the problem you aim to solve, and find people with the same issue. Present them your solution and take any and all feedback, making sure to keep notes and document it all.

Here are my top tips!

-I’d recommend inserting each feedback session into a spreadsheet, trying to quantify as much as you can. That way you can easily identify trends, problems and recommendations. The next stage is to use this feedback to make changes to your product, then rinse and repeat as frequently as necessary.

-I would encourage early on in the product development to test and innovate the product as frequently as possible.

-Don’t wait to add multiple changes at once, implement each change after a feedback session and then document and test it again. That way not only are you showing constant acceleration in innovation but if you make a change that negatively affects the solution it’s much easier to identify and you wont spend valuable time and effort developing a feature that may not work. It’s also a great way to keep implementation simple, innovation is rarely about the complexity of the input.

-If you plan to implement in the a barebones version of a feature you can then receive feedback on it and choose to only develop the useful aspects of it – simplifying the input but keeping the desired change in the output. This is in essence an off-shoot of the ‘Lean Development Method’ but simplified and generalised not just for software development. If you’ve further interest in the Lean Method, there’s a great guide by Roadmunk (https://roadmunk.com/guides/lean-development/)

That’s all I’ve got – I wanna keep this simple and to the point. If anyone is taking part this year in the Student Enterprise Programme and would like any advice or just feedback on anything please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at MIRR. We can be found on Instagram or twitter @mirr_ire or feel free to email jack@mirr.tech

Best of luck!

Jack

 2020/21 SEP National Intellectual Property Awards

The Student Enterprise Programme is delighted to announce that we will once again be awarding three prizes in the area of Intellectual Property at the National SEP Final on Friday 14th May 2021.

The awards are kindly sponsored by The Intellectual Property Office of Ireland and are open only to students taking part in the National Final 2021.

Students will be judged on their understanding of the area of IP for business and how they considered the various IP issues in relation to their own student enterprises. For example, how a team researched the uniqueness of their brand, identified IP rights owned by others that they need to request permission for,  and if and how they have looked into how to protect their own IP for their student enterprise.

Award Categories:

• Intellectual Property Award (Junior Category)             €200 voucher + trophy + cert
• Intellectual Property Award (Intermediate Category) €250 voucher + trophy + cert
• Intellectual Property Award (Senior Category)             €300 voucher + trophy + cert

How to Enter:

Senior Category: Students should include a section on Intellectual Property in their business report submitted for the National Final which must be submitted by Friday 16^th April 2021 to our National Co-ordinator.

Junior & Intermediate Categories: To enter, students should include a section on Intellectual Property as a one page appendix to their business poster submitted for the National Final which must be submitted by Friday 16^th April 2020 to our National Co-ordinator.

All entries should be submitted to our National Co-ordinator by the Local SEP Co-ordinator in your region.

National Final 2021: Friday 14th May 2021 (VIRTUAL EVENT)

Business Report/Business Poster Deadline: Friday 16th April 2021

Entry:

• Mini-Company: Overall winners in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories at County Finals go forward to compete at the National Final.
• ‘My Entrepreneurial Journey’: Overall winners at County Level go forward to be considered for national prize.
• ‘Most Creative Business Idea’ video competition: Overall winners at County Level go forward to be considered for national prize.