A group of Donegal students are in line to win the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year after making sweets from seaweed!
Can you really turn seaweed into sweets?
The students, whose company is called Milseog Na Mara, are Mary Kate Carr (15), Aimée Byrne (16), Rebecca McShane (16) and Ronan O’Hare (15).
The group are transition year students at Colaiste na Carraige in Carrick and hail from Glencolmcille, Kilcar and Teelin.
Their business “Milseog na Mara” offers healthy and tasty alternatives to jellies, cold remedies and chocolate mousee using carrageen moss as the main ingredient.
They got their inspiration for these products when Mary Kate fell ill and was given a cold remedy using carrageen moss.
Through market research, the students found that there was a huge gap in the market for a product like this which afforadable at €3 per jar. “Milseog na Mara” currently trades at local country markets.
The finals of the awards take place at a lavish ceremony in the Mansion House in Dublin on Monday next, at which the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 will be announced.
This competition is being run by the Foróige Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).
Six finalists will pitch their businesses to a panel of judges from some of Ireland's leading companies as they battle it out to be crowned Youth Entrepreneur of the Year 2015.
The finalists will be on site at the Mansion House with their products.
The overall winner will be announced live on stage in the Oak Room at the Mansion House at 6pm.
Approximately 1,000 teenage participants in Ireland have generated €250k turnover as part of the Foróige Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Programme in the past year.