Gaeilge
Fifth class primary school students in the Finn Valley area are taking part in the annual enterprise programme organised and run by Donegal ETB’s Finn Valley College. Over the past four years this exciting programme has taken on some twists and this year is no different as the students are getting a chance to experience a taste of what it’s like to be their own boss and run their own business.
Safety is the theme this year and the 5th class students have stepped up to the challenge of bringing innovative products and services to prototype stage with the aim of reducing the amount of incidents in relation to fire/water/roads etc. The programme helps students to understand essential life skills associated with running a real enterprise including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liaising directly with customers and judges.
Finn Valley College business students and their teacher Ashlean Mc Geehan have been mentoring the primary school students over the past six weeks. In that time, they have seen some remarkable ideas with high levels of innovation, ingenuity and clever sales pitches. The young people have displayed great levels of confidence in presenting their reports, showing that they have developed self-confidence as they work their way through the different stages of their business.
Finn Valley College teacher Ms McGeehan stated that ‘Introducing enterprise to younger students in such a relevant fashion can only help to create more entrepreneurs in the future.’ She had some very tough decisions to make in the past two weeks in selecting the top teams to go through to the final stages of the competition. The successful teams, representing their primary schools, will compete against each other in Finn Valley College on Friday 23 February where they will pitch their ideas/businesses to a panel of three judges in Dragons Den style. There will be loads of surprises on the day for all students involved. The mentoring team and Donegal ETB wish them all the very best of luck!
The schools involved are Scoil Bhride, Convoy; Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Lifford; Dooish N.S., Glencovitt N.S., St Mary’s N.S., Castlefin; Gleneely N.S. and Robertson’s N.S..
