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Half of Irish college students plan to start a business

Third level students cite financial concerns as the main barrier to starting a company.

HALF OF IRISH college students have a business idea that they want to develop, a new survey has found.

The main motivation among students was the opportunity to be independent and responsible for their own decisions, with the chance to make money by spotting a gap in the market only second.

The survey was run by the Ignite graduate business innovation programme.

Ignite was trying to assess factors that influence student attitudes towards entrpreneurship, as well as gauging awareness for business incubation programmes.

Gender equality

The survey found that as many of the female respondents were interested in starting a business as their male counterparts.

In a comment on the results, Ignite said “if the survey findings give an indication of changing trends, the numbers of women business owners will keep rising as interest in entrepreneurship grows and younger women look to it as a viable option.”

Around half of the respondents who said they wanted to start their own business had a parent who had done the same, suggesting a correlation between entrepreneurial spirit and family background.

Barriers

The main barrier students commented on was the lack of financial resources and support, which 47 per cent of students picked as the main stumbling block in starting a new business.

Other hurdles included lacking necessary business skills, not enough business opportunities relating to their specific area of study, and unwillingness to take a risk.

Commenting on the results, Miniser for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock TD said:

“It’s encouraging to see that there appears to be a healthy interest in entrepreneurship within the student community…by giving students the skills they need to successfully set up and run a company, they will be capable of replicating that success with other ideas in the future, ensuring entrepreneurship thrives and survives.”

The Ignite graduate business innovation programme is a nine month course at UCC for recent graduates with a viable business idea. Applications for the 2014/2015 must be in by 30 May.

Despite being more confident about the economy, Dubliners are wary of setting up a business>

Meet the creative entrepreneurs who fought the slump – together>

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13 Comments
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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Oct 29th 2012, 2:38 PM

    Sandy sounds increasingly like my wife when she’s on the warpath!

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    Mute Stephen murphy
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    Oct 29th 2012, 2:41 PM

    It must get very windy in your house, does she blow hot or cold air?

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    Mute SeanR
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    Oct 29th 2012, 2:41 PM

    Dept of Foreign Affairs is kind of late to the party with that advice. The east coast airports are closed. People couldn’t travel even of they wanted to.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Oct 29th 2012, 2:48 PM

    The first paragraph does not make sense because you won’t be able to travel to the US. All flights are cancelled to the north east.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 29th 2012, 3:06 PM

    To be fair, the advice is also intended for people who aren’t necessarily travelling directly from Ireland.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Oct 29th 2012, 4:40 PM

    Gavan, true but you can’t travel without the plane.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 29th 2012, 7:53 PM

    No, but like I said, if you’re not currently in Ireland and happened to be, say, elsewhere in the USA, perhaps you were intending to drive to the north-east?

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    Mute Damocles
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    Oct 29th 2012, 3:40 PM

    People need to be told this? Anyone likely to look to see probably already has a fair idea of what’s going on there,

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    Mute Biggins31
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    Oct 29th 2012, 6:10 PM

    You’d be surprised (maybe not) at the stupidity of some people still.
    Some still have to be told these things sadly.

    Like the America packets of peanuts that has on the packets “Warning: Contains nuts” Loads of similar examples available).
    Silly to state these things but sadly have to still be done because people can be stupid.

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