Last week over 60 Norwegian and Swedish students and teachers marched in Waterford City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade as part of an enterprise visit to Waterford on the invitation of the Local Enterprise Office. The students (18-19 years olds) are studying a 3-year entrepreneurship program, this is the student’s 3rd and last year and the Irish visit is the highlight of their year.
A full and varied itinerary was planned for the group including visits to Dunhill Ecopark, WIT and historical venues such as the Medieval Museum. The trip included with a dinner in Dooley’s Hotel on the Wednesday evening hosted by the Local Enterprise Office. The menu for this dinner was sourced principally from local foods and constituted a ‘celebration’ of Waterford food production.
This is the seventh year Waterford City Enterprise Board and now Local Enterprise Office has hosted a Norwegian student group. Richie Walsh, Head of Enterprise at the Local Enterprise Office emphasised the importance of the visit, “Waterford and Ireland’s approach to enterprise development is seen by the Scandinavian countries as a good example to show the students and their enterprise teachers, and we have much to learn from them also.”
The most fun had to be the visit to WIT and TSSG were they partook in a ‘start your own business’ Pizza game, discovering the pitfalls and various stages of business growth.
Swedish teacher, Tomas Hjelm described the importance of the visit, “I have been travelling over to Waterford for many years now. I even holidayed with my family here last summer. I am delighted we have made this study visit a permanent fixture for our 3rd grade entrepreneurship class. Our students need to learn that ours is a small country on the edge of Europe, and we depend heavily of the rest of Europe and the world. Not many have been to Ireland before, so this will open their eyes to what Ireland has to offer. We hope that we can host a group from Waterford also very soon.”
The group returned home on Friday March 18th, tired from a full schedule but having learned much about Ireland and Waterford’s entrepreneurial challenges and skills.
For more information, please contact your Local Enterprise Office at 32 the Mall in Waterford City or Civic Offices in Dungarvan. Alternatively email info@leo.waterfordcouncil.ie .