Lurgan Young Entrepreneurs celebrate success at market

St George’s Market hosted over 700 students from over 60 schools across Northern Ireland, who showcased their start-up businesses at the event, as well as their products, which they developed from conception to production in just three months.

The students are responsible for developing an initial product idea, developing it into a real product for sale, creating a business plan, raising capital to fund production, before marketing and selling their product to the general public – hopefully generating a profit.

Stephen Davidson (17), a student at St Ronan’s College, participated in the programme with his school’s company, Sweet Dreamz.

The team, which included an impressive 16 of his classmates, worked to develop a website ordering service for a selection of sweets.

He said: “The programme focuses on cooperation, and discussing ideas with others in order to set-up and run a business. I wanted to develop my skills by taking part, and I liked the idea of selling products to the public. I would recommend the programme to others – it gets you out of your comfort zone and gives you a sense of personal responsibility.”