St. Mary's School Charleville & Davis College Mallow Scoop Top Awards at Student Enterprise Competition
St. Mary’s School Charleville & Davis College Mallow Scoop Top Awards at Student Enterprise Competition
Students from St. Mary’s Secondary School in Charleville and Davis College Mallow scooped the top prizes at the North Cork Schools Enterprise Programme’s annual Christmas Trade Fair, which took place at the Cork Marts in Fermoy, yesterday 14th December,
The Best Overall Team in the Senior Category is from St. Mary’s Secondary School in Charleville and is called Álainn. The Transition Year students specialise in producing 100% natural handmade facial and body scrubs.
The winning team from Davis College in Mallow is called Season’s Sweetings. The students designed and produced a range of humorous Christmas cards featuring local celebrities, with all profits being donated to charity. They also produced a range of Christmas themed sweets.
The Trade Fair is the first competitive leg of the Student Enterprise Awards competition – a national competition with over 15,000 students taking part nationally each year. At the Trade Fair, students set up and decorated exhibition stands at the Cork Marts and put their range of products on display. During the morning students sold their products and were assessed by a panel of judges comprising of local business people.
Prizes were presented by Joan Kelleher, Business Development Executive, North Cork Enterprise Board.
Other prizes awarded on the day included:
Senior Category (Transition Year Students):
- Best display stand: Season’s Sweetings, Davis College, Mallow
Boutique Bean Bags, Coláiste Treasa Kanturk
- Best sales techniques: ICE, CBS, Charleville
Síoraí, Loreto School, Fermoy
- Best innovation: CT Scoreboards, Coláiste Treasa Kanturk
Explanation of Our Nation, Coláiste Treasa Kanturk
- Best team spirit: Customine, Presentation School, Mitchelstown
Dynamix, St. Colman’s School, Fermoy
Intermediate Category (2nd Year Students):
- Best overall company: The Xmas Factor, Davis College, Mallow
Junior Category (1st Year Students):
- Best overall company: Bird Busters, Patrician Academy, Mallow
Sharp Rise in Student Entrepreneurs
This year saw a huge increase in the number of students in North Cork taking part in the Student Enterprise Competition. 35 student companies from 12 schools were represented yesterday at the Trade Fair, which is almost double the number of teams that took part in the Programme last year.
Speaking at the event, Co-ordinator Yvonne O’Neill said “The North Cork Enterprise Board is delighted with the increased participation this year. More and more teachers and students are now coming on board, realising the benefits of putting what they learn in theory in Business Studies in the classroom into practice by setting up and running a small business. We saw some fantastic and very viable business ideas here at the Trade Fair today and hopefully some of these might be pursued into real businesses”.
The next leg of the competition will be the Regional Finals which take place in March, followed by high profile National Finals in Croke Park in April 2012.