Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
453. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason for the nature of the intended extent of the expansion of the student enterprise awards as per Action 18 of the Action Plan for Jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13158/14]
View answerAs part of an ongoing entrepreneurship marketing drive, Enterprise Ireland (EI) offers a €500 cash prize and a representative of Enterprise Ireland to sit on the evaluation panel of internal entrepreneurship competitions within Third Level institutes. This lets Enterprise Ireland gauge the standard of applications that can be brought forward to the national Student Enterprise Awards Programme and it also assists the Agency in promoting the national competition in the Third Level institutions.
The Third Level Student Enterprise Awards Programme is an annual programme run across the island of Ireland jointly by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and Invest NI, utilising private sector sponsorship. The programme is aimed at all Third Level colleges and seeks to encourage entrepreneurship amongst undergraduates. Prizes to the value of €60,000, via a combination of cash and mentoring, are awarded annually. Approximately 400 applications are received each year from individual students and student teams.
This academic year, Enterprise Ireland has increased the emphasis on identifying and nurturing Ireland’s future entrepreneurs in Third Level colleges by presenting directly to students and academics about its national competition, sponsoring the internal competitions in the institutes, having a presence at Enterprise Weeks in the Third Level institutions, engaging with student unions and entrepreneurship societies, surveying previous finalists to see how EI could change the competition in the future to make it stronger, and finally, emphasising to students that starting their own business after graduation is a real career option for them.
The competition is fully built around developing student teams into start-ups, especially with help and consultancy of the sponsors, such as Enterprise Ireland and Invest NI mentoring and funding packages, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Consultants who mentor the student teams around protecting and patenting their ideas, Intel help student teams develop ICT ideas and Grant Thornton help the teams with finance/accounting concerns they may have. A marketing campaign, linked to a dedicated website - (www.studententrepreneurawards.com) - and new application formats (video and social media), have been introduced for this year’s programme. This is being complemented by on-campus promotion by EI Regional Teams across the country.
The closing date for the submission of business ideas on video was Monday 17 March 2014. The entries received will be shortlisted with 50 entries being invited to submit a business plan. These plans will be assessed and 10 finalists will be selected for final judging and participation in the closing ceremony in the week commencing 9 June 2014.
