The Young Entrepreneurs Club is an initiative developed by Fingal Libraries in association with the Europe Direct Information Centre at Blanchardstown Library. Each club consists of twenty fifth and sixth class pupils from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds who spend eleven weeks learning about how to set up and run a business. The main objective of the club is to foster an interest in entrepreneurship and business among primary school pupils. The long term aim is that some of these young people will themselves become the entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators of the future. The Young Entrepreneurs are given access to and encouraged to use all of the resources available in the library. The presentation will demonstrate the steps we took to achieve these objectives and how we plan to improve and expand the club going forward. Firstly, we will describe where the idea for the club came from and how it ties in with the strategic objectives of Irish libraries and Europe Direct. Secondly, we will describe the planning that took place with the facilitator before the club was launched. This included deciding what format the club would take; the content; and how to reach potential members and their parents. We will also describe the weekly preparation that was carried out before and after each club session. Thirdly, we will demonstrate how the first Young Entrepreneurs Club worked in practice and how we adapted subsequent clubs based on the knowledge gained and feedback received. The last part of the presentation will deal with how we evaluate the club. We will describe our evaluation methods and present some of the feedback we received from club participants, parents and facilitators. Finally, we will present our conclusions as to how well we achieved the objectives discussed at the beginning of our presentation.

1. Young Entrepreneurs Club at Fingal Libraries
Siobhán Walshe
Fingal Libraries
Barry O’Carroll
Fingal Libraries

2. Aim of the Young Entrepreneurs Club
To awaken an interest in and involve
primary school children in the world of
business, enterprise and entrepreneurship.

3. Planning YEC
Lilian Whelan
Senior Executive Librarian
Blanchardstown Library

4. Skills Developed
 team building
 conflict resolution
 sales skills
 customer care
 problem solving
 critical thinking
 basic business
accounting
 social interaction
 motivation
 creativity
 risk management
 resilience
 hand-eye
coordination /
dexterity

5. Serena Bryans
Facilitator
Young Entrepreneurs Club
Creating the Programme

6. Designing Products to Sell
Making
the
prototypes

7. A Typical Club Afternoon
Manufacturing
the
products

8. Aoife’s Experience
Aoife
Participant
Young Entrepreneurs Club
Balbriggan Library

9. Market Day
Sell!
Sell!
Sell!

10. Presentation of Certificates
The final day
of
Young Entrepreneurs Club

11. Evaluation and Feedback - Participants
 I learned how to control my behaviour.
 I learned how to run my own business and
the steps of being a young entrepreneur.
 I learned that anyone can be an
entrepreneur.
 The fact that in tight situations, I’d start to
panic and push people which isn’t healthy
and I should work on this.
 I learnt that being an entrepreneur is no
easy task. You need to be persistent and
courageous with every step you take. Each
step, whether business or personal related
can affect your journey.
 I would work harder.
 I believe that this was a well organised club.
It is a way to introduce children like myself
to the beginning of business. Basically, I
LOVE THIS CLUB !!!

12. Evaluation and Feedback - Parents
 I hoped she would get real world
experience of a group business
environment and she did.
 I felt it was good that the children learned
to compromise and do something outside
family life, to best their independence.
 I’m delighted my son took part. It has
brought him out of himself.
 Great encouragement for kids.
 Learning the business process from market
research to selling.
 Helping kids explore different career routes.
 Perhaps start up an old entrepreneurs club
for parents too LOL! You have it all. Just
keep this up. Well done!!!

13. Participant Feedback
Leo
Participant
Young Entrepreneurs Club
Blanchardstown Library

14. Parent feedback
Berengére
Parent
Young Entrepreneurs Club

15. Facilitator Feedback
Serena Bryans
Facilitator
Young Entrepreneurs Club

16. Top Tips for Young Entrepreneurs Leaflet
Getting Down to Business

17. Changes Made Based on Feedback
 Information session held
for participants and
parents
 Reduced number of
participants from 25 to 20
 Created an even gender
balance – 10 boys and 10
girls
 Start time was put back
to 4pm

18. Young Entrepreneurs Club at Fingal Libraries
Thank you