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Founding and managing a business is child’s play. What else to conclude when considering the €3m worth of sales that primary school pupils have achieved in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme? Of course this amount of revenue was not achieved by one project and one group of pupils.
Still, the fact that the over 100,000 school children have participated in the programme since 2010 might be one reason Ireland’s economy is performing so well relative its European peers.
The JEP is the brainchild of Kerry entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly, who in 2006 sold his stock photography business Stockbyte to Getty Images for over €100m. Kennelly developed JEP with Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, and in 2020 state agency Enterprise Ireland gave its official backing, joining RTE and Kennelly’s marketing technology company Tweak as a partner.
According to Marie Lynch, co-founder of JEP, c.10.000 pupils in 400 classes worked on their classroom businesses as part of the 2023 programme.
“Through JEP, children experience first-hand just how much fun creating, working and succeeding in business can be,” Lynch explains. “The children appreciate every cent when their investment in the business is on the line – and they savour the profit they achieve.
The programme caters for fifth and sixth class primary school children and aims to combine the children’s creativity with the skills they develop on the programme to create original products.
Children begin by learning about entrepreneurs and are urged to dream up business ideas. One Big Idea is selected and to take forward as a class. The pupils conduct market research and sometimes meet with entrepreneurs before developing their team working skills and going on to make and sell their products.
“One of the key changes in the approaches of the classroom entrepreneurs has been the realisation that their entrepreneurial endeavours can make a difference in their locality,” says Lynch. “As a result, they’ve embraced the concept of social entrepreneurship, funded by their successful classroom businesses.”
JEP encourages successful entrepreneurs to help out. Supporters include Frank Salmon of CMS Distribution, Chupi Sweetman of Chupi Jewellery, and Sonya Lennon, co-founder of Lennon Courtney.
The micro enterprises emerging form the classroom range from board games to storybooks, craft and educational products, and service ideas with a focus on topics like sustainability and wellbeing. JEP’s class of the year 2022 award went to Sacred Heart National School in Aughrim, who devised a children’s book, ‘Alfie’s Aughrim Adventures’.
The book features a little llama that explores the Wicklow village in search for treasure and takes in the town landmarks. The kids each ponied up €10 to produce 120 books and the venture turned a profit of €730.
Children from St Saviour’s National School in Rathdrum sold ‘BushCraft Boxes’ containing necessities for a nature trail, such as compass bracelets, a trail guide with QR codes, and a booklet containing information around flora and fauna. That project delivered a surplus of €800.
“The feedback from many pupils is that starting a business is much tougher than they had imagined. Many children cite the biggest challenges as learning to compromise, listening to everyone’s ideas and working as a team,“ according to Lynch. “However, their biggest takeaway is the sense of pride and achievement they feel from successfully creating a business from scratch.”
JEP’s experience is that the ideal time to introduce the concept of enterprise to children is when they are 11 or 12 years old, though programme success depends on an engaged teacher and close parental and community contact with the schools.
The programme is free for participating schools and locks into curriculum subjects English, Maths, Visual Arts, ICT, Drama and SPHE.
Photo: Sixth class pupils from Shellybanks national school in Sandymount helped the Junior Entrepreneur Programme reach the 100,000 classroom entrepreneur landmark.
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