28.11.12
Ireland: A Morning for Student Entrepreneurs

“A Morning for Student Entrepreneurs” was a very informative and successful “YES” Project Dissemination Seminar organised by the South-East Regional Authority (SERA) with the support of South Tipperary County Enterprise Board (CEB). This two-hour seminar took place on Monday 12th November at the LIT Campus in Clonmel. LIT Tipperary has a long association with the secondary school students taking part in the South Tipperary CEB Student Enterprise Awards competition so this was a fitting setting for the seminar.

The nearly 140 secondary school students who attended heard about the findings, results and outputs from the “Youth Entrepreneurship Strategies (YES)” Project; listened to two real-life accounts of “entrepreneurial journeys” and for those registered in the CEB’s Student Enterprise Awards programme, they got the latest information hints and tips.

The SERA is one of 8 European partner organisations participating in the “YES” project which is part-funded by the European Union’s INTERREG IVC programme. The objective of the “YES” project is to examine and find better ways of integrating entrepreneurship education (EE) into mainstream education systems. Further information on the project can be viewed at www.young-entrepreneurs.eu or the Authority’s website, www.sera.ie.

The South Tipperary CEB annual Student Enterprise Awards competition is the flagship enterprise competition in South Tipperary. It offers students the opportunity to take a business from idea stage, through market research to production, selling, record keeping, management and finally writing a comprehensive report. Go to www.southtippceb.ie or www.studententerprise.ie for further information.

Extremely interesting real-life accounts of “entrepreneurial journeys” were provided to the students by Edward O’Donnell from O’Donnells Crisps (www.odonnellscrisps.com) and Steffen Coonan of Hillyfield Productions (www.hillyfieldproductions.com).

Over seven generations of the O’Donnell family have lived on Seskin Farm near Kilsheelan and have mastered the art of cultivating the perfect potato. In 2010, Edward O’Donnell launched O’Donnells Crisps with the potatoes produced at Seskin Farm.

Hillyfield Productions is a new Clonmel-based company set up by Steffen Coonan to work in the area of website development, photo-montages and videos and also to provide training in social media, photoshop and music production.

Both the SERA and South Tipperary CEB would like to express their gratitude to both speakers who took time out of their busy work schedules to speak to the students.


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