Junior Entrepreneur Programme at St John the Baptist BNS
The Junior Entrepreneur Programme (JEP)continues at St John the Baptist BNS. This is a unique programme which has an alumni of 26,500 children who have created entrepreneurial businesses in their classrooms in Ireland.Every child proposes an idea and during the 12-16 week programme one is selected as the class business. Each child invests a small amount of capital in the business and receives their share of the profits. It’s not just a business plan, but a real business conceived from scratch with real products and services and real customers who pay for what is produced. It all comes together at the Junior Entrepreneur School Showcase Day. Primary School provides a great opportunity for change creation. The combination of having one teacher with a constant and familiar relationship with pupils, close parental and community contact with the schools, combined with the open minds of 11 and 12 year olds make it the ideal time to introduce new concepts.
JEP has been developed in collaboration with Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick. Pupils are learning new life skills while covering their core subjects in a fun and engaging way.
Entrepreneurs are at the economic heart of Irish society. They conceive creative products and services used by customers at home and all over the world. They create employment, wealth, and are big contributors to the national exchequer.They’re not always running multi-national companies. Some are people who’ve chosen to work for themselves and have a lifestyle which is independent of an employer. A self-employed person makes a significant contribution to the economy – and to society. Entrepreneurs have become applauded in Irish society as their passion, inspiration and hard work are celebrated in programmes like the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den.
There is no clear formula to becoming an entrepreneur – except perhaps inspiration, hard work and competence – and sometimes getting thrown in the deep end, but there are learned skills that help make the process a bit less risky. Michael Ryan, County Manager of Bank of Ireland and Denis Vahey (Denis Vahey Photography) were invited into St John the Baptist BNS to speak to the boys about their business experiences. Michael Ryan spoke to the boys in 6th class about the financial side of business, costings, taking out loans and investing. He stressed the importance of having their product well researched and advertised. He told them that banks were willing to invest in people that were well prepared with their business plans. He spoke about the daily challenges he experiences combining working in finance and training the Tipperary team. He wished the boys well and encouraged them to go further with their product.
Denis Vahey is a local photographer who travelled to the UAE to teach English for a number of years. He saved his money and used his savings to invest in his photographic equipment. He used his profits to invest back into his business. He established his business in Cashel and started taking family portraits and weddings. Denis spoke about the many different categories of photography for example nature, fashion, landscape and he has decided to concentrate on commercial and wedding photography. Denis allowed the boys to take some pictures and showed them how to edit the pictures. Denis had great preparation done for his visit and interacted greatly with the boys. The visit from both men has inspired the boys to continue with their work for the JEP and a sincere thanks to Michael Ryan (Bank of Ireland) and Denis Vahey (Denis Vahey Photography) for their interest and kindness to the boys.
