Start-up market sees students turn business ideas into reality

Hundreds of young entrepreneurs from across Northern Ireland put their business skills to the test at the annual Young Enterprise NI Big Market.

Many of the 130 student businesses from 80 schools and colleges chose to create business plans focused on sustainability and used social media to announce their participation.

The event – the largest to date – was open to the public and a jury of business leaders at St George’s Market in central Belfast.

It was part of Young Enterprise NI’s entrepreneurship program, which aims to give young people the experience of starting a real business, with students tasked with creating a product to sell.

Ballymena Academy’s ‘Coastify’ corporate team took to TikTok to promote their coaster and experience, with one post attracting 263,100 views.

The social media team said the platform was important in attracting its target market.

“It definitely benefited us, a lot of people said they recognized us from TikTok,” they said.

Wallace High School in Lisburn reused fishing nets that had been dumped into Lough Neagh.

They cleaned and prepared the nets and paired them with beads made from recycled beach plastic to create bracelets.

The team hoped to raise awareness of the amount of nets often made from nylon plastic that pollute Lough Neagh and enter the oceans each year.

Nathan, digital technology director, said: “Lough Neagh is full of ghost net waste, and we thought we would clean, recycle and reuse it.

“The father of one of our team members knew a fisherman who was able to supply us with some, and we got plenty.”

Participation in the Young Business Entrepreneurship Program begins in September and continues until Easter, when businesses enter a Northern Ireland-wide competition.

Cambridge House Grammar School in Ballymena wanted to “make a difference” with the vision of reducing the amount of clothing ending up in landfill.

They transformed old, unwanted clothes into fashion in the form of bags and bows.

The team said using unwanted clothing also benefited profit margins, with “all production costs covered”.

St Patrick’s High School in Keady took part in the event for the first time with five sustainability-focused business groups.

Jolly Jars has recycled glass jars, turning them into dishwasher safe jars.

Ms Conlon, a teacher at St Patrick’s High School, said preparing for the event had been a brilliant experience, giving pupils “a real taste of the real world”.

“Having goals, hitting them, getting the sales price, what’s going to work, what’s not going to work, they did tests at school to see what would work, the design process – you can’t teaching that, it has to come from experience,” she said.

Carol Fitzsimons, Managing Director of Young Enterprise NI, has been involved in organizing the showcase for over 10 years.

“This is the biggest year we’ve ever had,” she said.

“It’s very exciting because it’s the first time these students have been able to sell their products to the public and present them to business leaders.”

She said the entrepreneurship program was key to developing the skills employers need.

“We are very aware that we are in a post-pandemic generation and that many of these young people have had their schooling disrupted,” she said.

“What we’re hearing in terms of their mental health and their skills is that they’ve struggled to develop soft skills around relationship building, teamwork and communication.”

Funding from Young Enterprise NI of the Ministry of Education was abolished with immediate effect in 2023.

Ms Fitzsimons said financial pressures would ultimately determine how the charity could support young people in the future.

“We have lost all our public funding, we have half the income we had before,” she said.

“While it’s great to have support from the business community, we really need a level of public sector support for this work.”