Young enterprise team set for Vienna

With participants from 31 countries attending the trade fair on Thursday March 12, the team have the unique honour of being the only ones selected to represent Northern Ireland.

“There is lots of excitement and we have a really packed itinerary,” said Young Enterprise co-ordinator Abigail Bittle.

“We’ll have some time to go sight-seeing, and there’s an award galla dinner and of course the pupils will be showing their product. It’s all very exciting.

“It’s also great for the pupils, when they have university interviews or job interviews - being able to say they have this experience under their belt will help them sell themselves.”

The team of eight year 14 students all have different skills and talents - some are interested in business, some are more IT inclined and some are arty, but they have come together and used their talents to create their Snap ‘n’ Save product.

“Their amazing product is an 8GB USB card and is perfectly sized for your purse or wallet,” said Mrs Bittle.

“It’s a must have for every student and so convenient to store homework or course work on.

“The product is of course also ideal for parents to help store photos from your phone or as a backup from your computer.

“The 8GB provides plenty of storage for text and photos alike.

“The pupils have sold the product throughout the school with different things included on it, for instance earlier in the year the school ran a production of Grease and they put this on it. They also sold some with school formal photos on it and set this to music.

“The team thought it would be nice to put different memories on it for the year 14’s - they are leaving at the end of they year and felt they wanted some memories to take away with them.”

The New-Bridge Young Enterprise Team took their first steps at retailing outside of the school environment when they set up a stand at the Outlet retail park.

“This was their first time selling in public so it was quite daunting for them, but they saw other retailers in action and how competitive retailing can be” said Mrs Bittle.

“They then went on to perform extremely well at the Trade Show in the Rushmere shopping Centre and this really boosted their confidence.

“The students have all worked very hard on this and we are really proud of them,” she added