Clara Hewstown (14) is the winner of of the Foróige NFTE International Business Plan Competition! She wins an all expenses paid trip to New York City and will attend a special Gala dinner celebrating youth entrepreneurship! Clara was one of eight shortlisted finalists in the running for the prize out of 50 entrants.
A group of Sligo teenagers have been named European Young Entrepreneurs of the Year 2014 at a ceremony in Vienna. The Mercy College, Sligo students Rianne Keaveney (17), Róisín Shaw (16) Sinead Fitzsimons (16), Sinead D’Arcy (17) and Samantha Scanlon (17) travelled to Vienna to represent Ireland in the prestigious competition, which saw young entrepreneurs from across Europe outline their business plans to a panel of judges from some of the country’s leading companies. They were announced as Gold First winners in the competition late on Wednesday afternoon (Nov 26th).
We are incredibly proud of Alex Fitzpatrick (17) who is one of 12 competitors in new TV3 series the Great Irish Bake Off. Alex participated in our Youth Entrepreneurship programme with Foróige's Blanchardstown Youth Service and was a finalist in our Youth Entrepreneur of the Year competition in 2013 with his business, "Love at First Bite". We caught up with Alex to find out how the programme has made a difference to his life.
Five teenage business women from Sligo are bracing themselves for success after being crowned the winners of the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2014, organised and run by Foróige, for their business ‘Brace Yourself’. The group were amongst the 1,500 participants from low income communities who set up 600 businesses as part of this year’s Foróige NFTE entrepreneurship programme, generating a collective turnover of €250,000.
Will Donnelly from St. Mary’s Secondary School in Glasnevin has won the Certified Entrepreneurship Trainer International Competition 2014. He has been teaching the Foróige Youth Entrepreneurship programme since 2010 and in this time he has brought approximately 150 students through to graduation. Will has enthusiastically brought the real business world into his classroom by arranging visits to local businesses, bringing in guest speakers to talk about how to survive in the business world, attended numerous trade fares and enabled his students to set up post office accounts for their businesses. Many of his students come from disadvantaged areas.
"The European Youth Forum published a paper entitled A Youth Guarantee for Europe and stated that youth organisations are most adept at providing ‘career focused training via non-formal education and developing a culture of entrepreneurship among young people’. And I would like to outline very briefly for you how this looks – and also to say that we have been doing this for a number of years. What are the capacities and aptitudes that employers are seeking from young people as they begin their working lives, what are called 21st Century skills?
