Young entrepreneur scoops award

A teenager from Hazel Lawn in Blanchardstown village has landed a major national award for entrepreneurship. Tommy O’Connell won first prize in the non-school category at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) awards ceremony in the RDS recently.

More than 500 young people from schools and youth education centres in Dublin and Belfast graduated in the NFTE entrepreneurship programme, which teaches entrepreneurship to young people aged 12 – 18 years from low-income, disadvantaged communities. It has been proven to build students’ confidence and interpersonal skills, encourage school completion and develop business knowledge, thus enabling students to see new opportunities and achieve a brighter future. Young people are engaged at a crucial point and learn how to harness their energies in a positive way.

Tommy - who attends Coolmine Community School - won the award for his business plan for “D.I.Y T’s” which involves him producing personalised t-shirts for customers. Apart from a magnificent crystal trophy, he also won vouchers to help further his business.

Another winner on the night was Ruth Condron, who attends Hartstown Community School. Ruth came second in the Social Entrepreneurs category, with a business plan that involves selling handmade jewellery, and she plans to use some of her skills and knowledge to run workshop classes for younger teens in her area.

The young entrepreneurship scheme is taught both in schools in transition year and also in youth groups outside of the school environment. Both Tommy and Ruth were part of the Blanchardstown Youth Service (BYS) NFTE group that started meeting last October under the stewardship of youth information officer Caitriona Freir.

“We had a wide spread of members coming from all over Dublin 15,” said Caitriona. “Some were from Corduff, some from Huntstown and Mulhuddart. We met on Tuesday evenings in Blanchardstown Youth Service. They didn’t come to the group with a fixed business idea in mind, simply an aspiration to start their own businesses.”

Throughout the year, the youth service staff facilitated entrepreneurship using experiential techniques in conjunction with NFTE’s exciting curriculum. The programme consisted of a balance of theory and practical exercises such as discussions, group work, presentations, team exercises, business plan work, computers and volunteer and community involvement such as guest speakers and field trips.

“The programme proved to be very popular with a great attendance each week,” explained Caitriona. “Aside from Tommy and Ruth, six other members received their certificates of completion at the RDS and the awards that the group received proved the success of the enterprise. The youth service will be recruiting for another group in September 2008.”

“NFTE Ireland is delighted to recognise the remarkable achievements of the young people here today,” said NFTE CEO Janet Cox at the ceremony. “They have demonstrated innovation and commitment creating plans for a huge range of business ideas and getting start-up companies up and running.”

Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in D.I.Y t-shirts they can contact Tommy through BYS (tel. 821 2012) or e-mail bys@foroige.ie with their enquiries.

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