01 December, 2020

The main role of the Student Enterprise Interns is to promote entrepreneurship to students across C.I.T. As part of this process, my colleagues Clionadh Fahy and Dylan Hennessey and I regularly engage with classes to inform students about the entrepreneurial resources that are available to them in CIT.

One of the activities that we use to promote entrepreneurship is the Business Model Canvas (BMC) Competition which is part of the CIT Module (Creativity, Innovation & Teamwork) for first year students. We present a short tutorial on the BMC template and demonstrate how it is used and how it can be applied. Groups of students are then challenged to come up with a new business idea and to map it out using the template.

At the end of semester, the groups pitch their ideas to a panel of Judges. Based on the idea concept and how well the model has been applied, Best in Class from each group is invited to a final showcase and the overall winning group is awarded €500.

The presentations kicked off last week and we are all really excited to hear what great and innovative ideas the 782 students we engaged with, will bring to the table.

During the sessions, we also familiarise students with other entrepreneurial activities in CIT such as

• the Student Inc. Programme
• the APPrentice Competition
• the Innovation Challenge and
• activities that will take place during the inaugural MTU Enterprise Month, March 2021.

Another way in which we engage with students is through giving tours of the Rubicon Centre. Unfortunately, due to Covid19, live tours were not possible this year but, with help from Student Inc. Alumni Isla Media, we filmed a virtual tour. The tour outlines all the entrepreneurial resources that are available to students while in college, for example the Cube Maker Space, and even after they graduate, for example entrepreneurial programmes such as New Frontiers and Exxcel.

While it isn’t the same as bringing a cohort of students into the building and engaging with them face to face, we are delighted to be able to facilitate the tours in this way and we thank all the lecturers from a variety of faculties and campuses who kindly invited us in to speak with their classes. So far this semester, the Rubicon virtual tour has engaged almost 300 students! This number will continue to rise as this semester draws to a close and into the second half of the year.

If you have any queries or would like further information, please feel free to contact the Student Enterprise Interns -

• Catriona Fenton Catriona.Fenton@cit.ie,
• Dylan Hennessy Dylan.Hennessy@cit.ie
• Clionadh Fahy Clionadh.Fahy@cit.ie