Twenty-three schools across Limerick county and city have signed up for the 2014 Junior Entrepreneur Pro-gramme (JEP). It is a 10 week not-for-profit entrepre-neurial education programme for primary school pupils and is led by Jerry Kennelly (founder and CEO of Tweak.com) in association with Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Developed in Ireland, the programme is embedded in the principles of the Primary School Curriculum and uses an integrated teaching and project-based approach to teach many strands of the curriculum. This innovative programme opens the minds of primary school pupils to the joy of entrepreneurship at a time in their lives when they are full of imagination and open to new possibilities. It helps pupils develop liter-acy, writing, presentation, drawing, technology, research skills, numeracy, financial, consumer aware-ness, storytelling, listening skills, creative thinking, problem solving, team building and collaboration skills, and it aids personal development, building confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem, and an appreciation of individual skills and talents.
JEP was founded in Co. Ker-ry in 2010 by Jerry Kennelly, Tweak. com, the Institute of Technology, Tralee, Mary Immaculate College of Education, Limerick and Shannon Development with the aim of fostering an entre-preneurial culture among primary school children, and has been running in Kerry and Limerick since 2011.
This year, successful entre-preneurs around the country are championing the pro-gramme in their areas, making it possible for thousands of primary school pupils to take part. In Limerick the partnership between JEP and Liam Woulfe, Freshgrass Group Limerick and Mary Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel delivers the programme without any cost to the parents or the schools. 5,000 pupils are currently in it and playing their part in creating their very own classroom enterprises.