The programme was delivered by a multi-disciplined team comprised of members from School of Engineering, School of Health & Science and School of Business & Humanities. This year each school held a number of workshops to enable TY students to recognise entrepreneurial opportunities. Exploring the endless possibilities around a broad concept of the entrepreneurial mindset and facilitate TY students to:

• consider what it means to be ‘entrepreneurial’;
• recognise their entrepreneurial potential;
• identify sources of entrepreneurial opportunities;
• explore and clearly define problems;
• creatively engage in identifying opportunities that could benefit others;
• communicate as a team;
• enhance their presentation and public speaking skills.

The students were given the task of developing a new breakfast drink for the tween market in their respective teams, with the goal of presenting their concept to a judging panel. The judging panel consisted of Colman Ledwith, Head of Department of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering at DkIT, aswell as three local C-Suite industry professionals; David Broe (Overhaul), Grace O’Shaughnessy (Java Republic) and Ruth Hughes (Kellogg’s Ireland).

David Broe, CFO for Overhaul said.

“It was a pleasure to spend time listening to the team’s ideas and concepts. This gives the students great exposure to a range of career options for the future.”

Grace O’Shaughnessy, MD for Java Republic said.

“It was my pleasure to support such a wonderful programme. The concepts the students came up with were very impressive.”

Ruth Hughes, MD for Kellogg’s Ireland said.

“I was honoured to support the programme this year and really enjoyed the team’s presentations. The students work on their new product was very impressive, and there are clearly some budding entrepreneurs among them! This programme is fantastic in terms of helping students broaden their knowledge of career choices open to them in the future.”

TY Student feedback:

“I had great fun from start to finish. The most enjoyable part for me  was the day we talked about engineering with Paul. I had fun while we worked in groups to organise our presentation and gather our ideas into one. We all worked together and had fun while doing it. The presentation day was interesting while we listened to everyone else's presentation. Of course it was fun when my group won because it came as a shock. Overall the course was great.”

The Programme is organised by the School of Engineering although many individuals and departments contribute to the success of the programme. Staff involved in the delivery of the programme are Bridget Kelly (Health & Science), Kate Johnston (Business and Humanities), Paul Durcan (Engineering), Maryellen Kelledy (Engineering) and Colman Ledwidth (Engineering). The support team consists of Nicola Larkin, (All Engineering Administration. The programme is funded by the HEA.