Westmeath Student Enterprise Junior Category Winners Niamh Noone, Lucy Keane and Doireann Keena, from Moate CS, pictured with Mark Connaughton, category judge, Pat Gallagher, Chief Executive, Westmeath Country Council, and Catriona Duffy, Local Enterprise Office Westmeath.

Moate students' Croke Park date for national enterprise finals

Adrian Cusack

Published: Thu 27 Apr 2023, 6:48 PM

Entrepreneurial first year students from Moare Community School are preparing to represent Westmeath in Croke Park at the national final of the student enterprise programme on Friday next, May 5.

Moate students Niamh Noone, Lucy Keane and Doireann Keena will compete in the junior category at the national event, having come out on top at the Westmeath county enterprise finals held in Athlone's Golden Island Shopping Centre in March.

Their mini-company is called ‘You Rock’ and they produce handmade frames using donated rocks which could be utilised in home decor or for gifts.

Representing Westmeath at senior level will be Paper4Nature, from Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, a project which involves recycling wastepaper by turning it into new products such as cards and bookmarks.

An initiative of the Local Enterprise Offices to encourage entrepreneurship in secondary schools nationally, the student enterprise programme has seen over 350,000 second-level students take part in the programme since it first began.

Each competing student enterprise is tasked with creating, setting up, and running their own business, which must show viable sales of their service or product.

Last year's overall winner of the student enterprise programme was 'Barrelda' - an eco-innovation created by two young farmers from Meath.

Barrelda specialised in revamping old, blue polythene drums and recycling them to create meal silos and teat feeders.