· Prize fund of €30,000 cash and €30,000 consultancy for enterprising
students
· Young entrepreneurs and third level students are seed bed for future
business start-ups
· Opportunity for enterprising students to get into business for
themselves
Minister for Small Business, John Perry T.D, today (Monday) announced that
Enterprise Ireland has launched a major drive to spur entrepreneurial third
level students to develop innovative business proposals as part of the
Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards competition. This is a
great opportunity for ambitious and enterprising students to build a
real-world business venture and at the same time be in with a chance to win
a prize from the overall €30,000 cash prize fund and €30,000 consultancy
fund, which includes a €10,000 first prize.
The Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards, which are co-sponsored
by Invest Northern Ireland, Intel, Cruickshank Intellectual Property
Attorneys and Grant Thornton, are Ireland’s biggest and longest established
student enterprise competition for third level student teams from the whole
island. The priority is to get students thinking now about starting their
own business as a career option once they graduate. The sponsors also
bring their expertise to nurturing the finalists in the competition to
commercialise their business by providing them with expert guidance in
areas such as intellectual property, market research, finances, technology
development, public relations and advertising, all aimed at supporting
young entrepreneurs to develop viable businesses and create jobs.
Launching the awards Minister for Small Business, John Perry T.D., said:
“Young entrepreneurs and third level students are a seed bed for future
business start-ups and as such they should be part of Ireland getting back
on its feet and the drive to stimulate more micro and small business
activity and create jobs. They can be our successful entrepreneurs of the
future and we need to really tap into the potential for them to help drive
the economy by starting their own business as a real career option. We
have to encourage and stimulate these students to be ambitious about their
own potential to go into business for themselves, and these awards are a
really important opportunity for them to test their flair for this.”
Tom Hayes, Enterprise Ireland’s Head of Entrepreneurship, added: “The
Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards campaign features a host of
approaches to reach the students and make sure they get every encouragement
and support to develop viable business plans. We encourage them to team up
with their colleagues and friends from other faculties to, be innovative,
collaborative and creative on coming up with products that will help them
explore their ideas and own appetite for going into business for
themselves.”
This year for the first time Enterprise Ireland are asking students to
submit a video that captures how great their idea is and shows commercial
and export potential. Other features of the competition include a
website, facebook page, twitter account and pod casts – reaching out to
students in the world that they know best. Enterprise Ireland are
currently supporting all of the internal entrepreneurship competitions
within the institutions on the island of Ireland with a €500 cash
sponsorship prize for each college.
Regional Executives from Enterprise Ireland will be presenting the details
of the competition to all colleges and institutions between now and the
closing date for the competition on 17 March 2014.
For more information visit the website on:
www.studententrepreneurawards.com