One of the key roles of the Kilkenny CEB is to stimulate an enterprise culture within the County. We try to do this in a number of the ways, including:
The national network of County and City Enterprise Boards in conjunction with the Second Level Support Service of the Department of Education and Science have developed an initiative called Enterprise Encounter that has been developed as a support to teachers in delivering an active, student-centred programme in enterprise awareness for the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the Leaving Certificate Applied. Enterprise Encounter brings senior students into direct contact with entrepreneurs in their locality, through planning, organising and making once-off investigative visits into small businesses. These visits take place during school time for a maximum of one hour and involve a small team of students interviewing the entrepreneur about his/her career and business. The Enterprise Encounter experience provides students with an insight into the courage, drive, persistence and vision required to set up and run a business. From an entrepreneur’s perspective there are also benefits, such as raising the profile of the entrepreneur’s business in the local community.
The Student Enterprise Awards (SEA) is a country-wide programme culminating in a National Final in May each year. The SEA Programme offers students the opportunity to take a business from the idea stage, through market research to production, selling, record keeping, management and finally writing a comprehensive report on their activities.
Participation in the programme encourages students to consider becoming entrepreneurs in the future and they are much better prepared by their experience. The experience of running a business brings many other benefits to students; it enhances creativity, improves communication skills and provides practical uses for business studies topics. Visit the Student Enterprise Awards website
The National Enterprise Awards are organised annually by the network of County & City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) to acknowledge the achievements of small enterprises and their valuable contribution to the local economy.
The competition is limited to businesses that have availed of financial assistance from the CEBs. Each CEB selects an overall winner who advances to the regional and then national stage of the competition. The National Enterprise Awards carry a total prize fund in excess of €20,000. Applications for the National Enterprise Awards are normally sought in June of each year. The County winner of the National Enterprise Awards 2011 was Anselm Molloy, Paragon Business Systems ltd.