Three Dublin secondary schools selected to represent the City at the national final of the Student Enterprise Programme

(Pictured above: Greg Swift, Head of Local Enterprise from Dublin City Council Local Enterprise Office presents Student Enterprise winning Students Alannah Gibney, Nailah Potot, Nabihah Ahmed and Serena Jeidel from St. Louis High School. Picture: Finbarr O’Rourke)

Dublin City Local Enterprise Office has announced that teams from Grange Community College, St. Louis High School and Belvedere College will represent the region at the National Final of the Student Enterprise Programme.

The announcement was made at the final of the Dublin City Student Enterprise Programme Final on March 24 which saw a total of 12 presentations from 12 enterprises across 3 categories.

The winning local teams will now compete against approximately 80 teams from around the country for a place in the Top 15 shortlisted teams to make it to the live event in the Helix on May 18th.

Lee Hands (pictured above with Greg Swift), a student at Grange Community College, was named Junior Overall Winner for his enterprise Lee Hands Masks (LHM) which sells personalised, affordable and reusable masks.

Students Alannah Gibney, Nabihah Ahmed, Serena Jeidel and Nailah Potot from St. Louis High School (pictured above) were named Intermediate Overall Winners for their business, Cingdom of Candles which saw them create trendy, decorative, uniquely designed bubble candles with three coloured layers, made from soy way which is non-toxic and vegan friendly.

Belvedere College (pictured above) scooped the title of Senior Overall Winner with its business Madrateic.

Madrateic is a dog harness that monitors dog’s health and fitness while providing safety with tracking and visibility.

The fitness monitor provides updates to a mobile phone app with information on the dog’s heart rate, temperature, and step count.

All of the students at the Dublin City Final have been taking part in the annual Student Enterprise Programme guided by the Dublin City Council Local Enterprise Office which has a long track-record of nurturing entrepreneurial skills amongst secondary school students, encouraging them to consider self-employment as a career path.

Congratulating the students and teachers from each of the three winning schools Greg Swift, Head of Local Enterprise from Dublin City Council Local Enterprise Office said:

“Our warmest congratulations go to Grange Community College, St. Louis High School and Belvedere College for their creative, innovative and high-quality submissions which clearly impressed the judging panel.

“We were exceptionally pleased with the number and standard of entries this year, as well as the level of enthusiasm seen right across the student population for generating ideas, problem solving, and creative thinking.

“The Student Enterprise Programme is so valuable in terms of giving our young people a first-hand insight into what it is like to be an entrepreneur, right at a point when decisions are being made about career paths.

“It is a way of exploring entrepreneurship and self-employment as a career option in a creative and competitive setting, providing a real-life experience like no other and developing a host of transferrable skills.

“I wish the student teams from Grange Community College, St. Louis High School and Belvedere College every success as they go forward to represent Dublin City at the National Final.”

The Student Enterprise Programme is Ireland’s largest and most successful student enterprise initiative.

Now in its 20th year it equips secondary school students with the real-life knowledge and hands-on skills required to establish, run and market a business through a structured eight-month-long enterprise education learning programme designed specifically for 1st year – 6th year students.