Kildare Students at National Enterprise Finals

Ireland’s finest young student entrepreneurs celebrated at National Finals

Supported by Local Enterprise Office Kildare, the students from St. Wolstons Community School in Celbridge competed in the Student Enterprise National Finals which saw 28,000 students from almost 500 secondary schools across the country take part.

There were 81 student businesses in contention across three main categories for the Final in what is Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students.  The initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country.

Students Maeve Foley Wollmer, Zoe Shannon, Alannah Morely and Caoimhe Ní Drisceoil who worked under the guidance of their teacher, Lorraine Plunkett presented their student enterprise “TANdyHand”, which helps people apply self-tan to reach their back to get a flawless and even tanned look.

The student team had previously won Kildare Local Enterprise Office’s county final of the student enterprise programme and following their win, the Local Enterprise Office Kildare team worked with a local product designer to refine the material choices in their original prototype and to experiment with 3D printing. They also met with influencer and AYU Cosmetics company owner Suzie O’Neill to learn from her and her industry experience.

Jacqui McNabb, Head of Enterprise and Economic Development, Kildare County Council said: “Suzie and The AYU brand started their entrepreneurship journey as a client of Local Enterprise Office Kildare and we’ve watched her grow to international acclaim. We brought in industry experts from Kildare to work with these aspiring female entrepreneurs, and to inspire them to really consider entrepreneurship as a future career.”

“Entrepreneurship is important for students as it builds real world skills of leadership and collaboration, which are helpful and important in a variety of fields. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders, or in this case, tomorrow's entrepreneurs.”

Deputy Principal of St. Wolstons Community School Anne Smyth said: “This has been a fantastic learning opportunity for our students and we were proud to represent Kildare. We are ready for the challenge again next year!”

Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, who took part in the ceremony, congratulated the students today; “Congratulations to everyone who made it to today’s National Finals. With over 28,000 students taking part in this year’s programme, it is a huge achievement to make it to the Finals and shows a real flair for entrepreneurship. Some amazing businesses and entrepreneurs have come from this programme – the majority did not win any prizes but are still running successful businesses today. So, to those of you who won something today, a huge congratulations, but most importantly, to you all, this is the first step on the path, you are the entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future and everyone here today is excited to see what you do next.”    

The Student Enterprise Programme is funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country.  Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 400,000 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 is one of a number of initiatives that the Local Enterprise Offices run, to foster entrepreneurship across the country. Others include Local Enterprise Week, the National Enterprise Awards, National Women’s Enterprise Day and Local Enterprise Showcase. The Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities are funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland.

Schools wishing to participate in Local Enterprise Office Kildare’s fully funded Student Enterprise Programme for Transition Year students for the academic year 2024-2025 can get involved by emailing the team via localenterprise@kildarecoco.ie or visit www.studententerprise.ie