Hundreds of young entrepreneurs from across Northern Ireland have been putting their business skills to the test at the annual Young Enterprise NI Big Market. Many of the 130 student companies from 80 schools and colleges chose to create business plans with a sustainability message at their core and used social media to advertise their attendance. The event - the biggest yet - was open to the public and a judging panel of business leaders at St George's Market in central Belfast.
It was part of the Young Enterprise NI's entrepreneurship programme, which aims to give young people the experience of starting a real business, with students given the task of creating a product to sell. Ballymena Academy's 'Coastify' enterprise team took to TikTok to promote their coasters and experience, with one post attracting 263.1K views.
The social media team said the platform was important for attracting their target market. "It definitely benefited us, a lot of people said that they recognised us from the TikTok", they said. Wallace High School from Lisburn repurposed fishing nets which had been dumped in Lough Neagh.
They cleaned and prepped the nets and paired them with beads made from recycled beach plastic to create bracelets. The team hoped to raise awareness of the amount of nets often made from nylon plastic polluting Lough Neagh and entering the oceans each year. Digital technology director Nathan said: "Lough Neagh is full of ghost net waste, and we thought we'd clear it up and rec.