No Sleep Till Clermont

2016 champ Luke Byrne

atest press release from Wicklow Enterprise Offices, issued on Thursday, February 23rd 2023…

Students across Wicklow are busy preparing for this year’s Wicklow County Final as part of Student Enterprise Programme, which will be held on March 2nd in Clermont House, Wicklow County Campus, Rathnew.

Clermont House

The programme is run through the network of Local Enterprise Offices, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the local authorities. It the country’s largest enterprise programme for secondary school students, with over 300,000 students taking part since it first began. Recent ambassadors for the programme have included Derval O’Rourke, Josh Van
Der Flier and Limerick All-Ireland winner Sean Finn.

Throughout the programme, students learn how to create and run their own business. In doing so, they learn what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur and develop key skills along the way in innovation, marketing and financial literacy.

A total of 21 schools have taken part in Wicklow this academic year. Many fantastic enterprises have been created by students during the year and a lot of hard work and effort has been put in by both students and teachers alike. Over 40 teams will get the opportunity to advance to the County Final.

Vibeke Delahunt, Head of Enterprise, said: “Every year we’re really impressed by the quality of the small business created by the students and the innovation that we see coming through their business ideas. We’re very excited that this year we will be celebrating the Student Enterprise Awards in person and are looking forward to having the students back at Wicklow County Campus to showcase their mini companies and the learning journey they have been on all year. It is shaping up to be an inspiring event and a celebration of young entrepreneurship at its best”.

Wicklow has had great success over the years with the Student Enterprise Programme. Last year, in the Senior Category of the competition, Dominican College with their enterprise Wood on Fire represented the County at the 2022 National Final. In the Junior Category, students CCA Junior Ornaments from Coláiste Chraobh Abhann represented Wicklow.

On March 2nd, the Wicklow finalists who will go on to compete at National level in May will be revealed.

In the meantime, you can check out Local Enterprise Week from March 6th to 10th here.