AKFP have been proud sponsors of Young Enterprise, Northern Ireland for many years. Young Enterprise is a dynamic, fast-growing charity, which reaches 90,000 school children every year and offers enterprise and entrepreneurship education for all young people, regardless of age, gender, background or location. Their ethos is to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in primary and post primary schools across Northern Ireland.
Roger has mentored a winning start up business from Friends School, Lisburn in previous years and this year he was invited to be a judge at The Big Market in St Georges Hall on the 5th December.
Roger with his fellow judges and some of the entrants
The Big Market is an event that gives students their first opportunity to trade and launch their products that have been developed through the business start-up programme.
On the programme students are responsible for creating an initial product concept, developing their product, creating a business plan, raising capital and then marketing and selling their products to the public.
Over 70 businesses consisting of young people from the ages of 10-18 presented and sold everything from jewellery, coffee, baby products, gifts and phone apps to crafts and books, amongst other things.
Roger was overwhelmed by the calibre of the business concepts put forward and realised, very quickly, that this was going to be a tough job!Ā
The market was a hive of activity and there was a buzz of excitement in the air! Cool FM were there to provide coverage and some festive music to get the public in the mood to part with their cash!
The market was buzzing
It was brilliant to see so many extremely talented young people promoting creative and innovative business ideas. The competition this year was extremely high, however, the winners were Glenlola with their “Barry goes to Sea” books, which aims to inspire future generations to be more conscious about the effects of plastic in our ocean. Friend’s School and Wallace High, both located in Lisburn, came joint second place. Congratulations to all the entrants! You should all be proud of your achievement!
