students get ready for the Student Enterprise Program National Final at Croke Park

Photos: Vicky Comerford

Preparations are well underway for three local secondary schools Grennan College, St. Kieran's College and Coláiste

Abhainn Rí, will represent Kilkenny at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals on Friday 5th May in Croke Park.

Local Enterprise O ce

Kilkenny announced the winners of the county nal in early March at Lyrath Hotel. Over 1000 students from 12 local schools took part in the annual programme with

130 students making it to the county nal.

In the Junior Category, the students representing Kilkenny at the National Finals are Jane Kelly and Isabelle Doheny from Worry Not at Coláiste Abhainn Rí. ey sell polished stones that consumers could use for meditation or to ease anxiety by rubbing.

Cian Holohan and Jack Dooley from HD Horseshoe Designs at St. Kieran's College will be representing the county in the Intermediate Category. is company sell a variety of ornaments made from repurposed horseshoes. In the Senior Category of the competition, Kilkenny will be represented on May 5th by Michael Bookle, Conor Monks, Darragh Dack, Conor Kelly and Isaac Magnez from e Gaming Guard at Grennan College. eir entrepreneurial idea includes an Xbox and PlayStation 5 controller accessory that helps players avoid being kicked out of live online games made from 3-D printing.

In the “My Entrepreneurial Journey” competition two Coláiste Abhainn Rí students will represent Kilkenny in the National Finals; Ruth O'Sullivan of Shake It Up Ltd. in the junior category and Darragh Lyons from Energelz in the intermediate category. Both students have made the top three shortlists in this competition ahead of the nals.

Speaking ahead of the national nal, Aileen McGrath, Acting Head of Enterprise, Local Enterprise O ce

Kilkenny wished the students well, saying “We have a very successful student enterprise programme here and last year

Kilkenny had a winner in the Junior Category, ‘Sew Stylish’ from St. Brigid’s Callan”. She added “Our national nalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck in Croke Park on May 5th.” e local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals, taking place at Croke Park in Dublin on the 5th May. e Finalists for Ireland’s largest entrepreneurial programme for secondary level students were announced this week from over 25,000 entrants. e Student Enterprise Programme, an initiative of the Local Enterprise O ces and now in its 21st year, has announced the 82 Finalists that will compete across three categories at the National Finals. e Finals take place in Croke Park on the 5th May where one student business will be named “Student Enterprise of the Year”. e Future of Jobs Survey brings together the perspective of 803 companies – collectively employing more than 11.3 million workers – across 27 industry clusters and 45 economies from all world regions. ough still expected to drive the transformation of almost half of companies in the next ve years, the ongoing impact of the pandemic, increased geopolitical divisions and demographic dividends

Each of the 31 Local Enterprise O ces have one representative each in the Senior category with the remaining nalists spread across the Junior and Intermediate categories. e nalists span a whole range of sectors from agriculture and design to sustainability and healthcare.

Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.

Economic, health and geopolitical trends have created divergent outcomes for labour markets globally in 2023. While tight labour markets are prevalent in high-income countries, low – and lower – middle-income countries continue to see higher unemployment than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

On an individual level, labour-market outcomes are also diverging, as workers with only basic education and women face lower employment levels. At the same time, real wages are declining as a result of an ongoing costof-living crisis, and changing worker expectations and concerns about the quality of work are becoming more prominent issues globally.

According to the survey, technology adoption will remain a key driver of business transformation in the next ve years. More than 85% of organisations surveyed identify increased adoption of new and frontier technologies and broadening digital access as the trends most likely to drive transformation in their organisation.

Broader application of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards within their organisations will also have a signi cant impact. e next most-impactful trends are macroeconomic: the rising cost of living and slow economic growth. e impact of investments to drive the green transition was judged to be the sixth-most impactful macrotrend, followed by supply shortages and consumer expectations around social and environmental issues.