A NEW GENERATION of entrepreneurs, whose Silicon Valley comes alive at the back of a classroom and whose business meetings are made possible by “Mum’s taxi”, are emerging as a dynamic innovative force.

They are inspired by business giants such as Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, who created Facebook with his classmates, and Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison who have become the Irish answer to Zuckerberg with their Stripe technology company.

At a time when students are becoming increasingly pragmatic in choosing the third-level courses most likely to offer jobs, they are also turning to their creative skills in an effort to build something which could offer them sustainable revenue and employment.

A record 16,600 students have applied for this year’s Student Enterprise Programme from 387 second level schools country-wide, using it as a springboard for business opportunities. Each student group has researched, set-up and started their own business.

Tara Haughton (17) is testament to the creativity and determination inherent in today’s students. Since creating Rosso Solini, a product which allows fashionistas transform their high-street high heeled shoe into a designer shoe with the attachment of a new sole, Haughton has infiltrated 23 countries, exporting to everywhere from Australia to Canada, Kuwait to Iceland.

Having initially hand-cut and sold 50 stickers to transition-year students seeking the Louboutin look, Haughton has since developed the range to include 30 different designs and colours as well as designing bespoke items for this summer’s Olympics Games on London.

She has now been nominated for the Global Enterprise Award, having won last year’s Student Enterprise Awards.

One group of students from Mount Saint Michael in Rosscarbery, Cork, are hoping to replicate Houghton’s success with Visu-L, a high-visibility reflective L-Plate. Aisling O’Sullivan (17) and her six colleagues were all learning to drive when they sat down to design and create a product.

“All L-plates on sale at the moment are just cheap plain colour, which can be difficult to see at night-time and in adverse weather conditions such as rain,” says Aisling. And so Visu-L was born; a concept welcomed by the Road Safety Authority, and supported by the likes of FBD and Aviva insurance, according to O’Sullivan.

With some 60,000 young people learning to drive every year in Ireland, the group believe there is a huge market for the product, which could also be expanded to cover learner signs abroad.

“The plan is to keep it going after school. It’s sad to see the amount of people leaving for jobs . . . if it [VisuL] takes off, maybe then we could expand and get our own jobs out of it. It could be our way out, says O’Sullivan.

Often, simplicity is the buzz word within student start-ups. Daniel Bowes (16) from Cashel Community School created BBPR Repairs Restoration, a service which restores old farm machinery to an improved working condition and increases the length of their working life at a time farmers cannot afford to replace them. All four members of the mini company come from a farming background where they honed the skills of welding, grinding, painting and assembling machinery parts.

According to Bowes, the inspiration for the company came after he helped restore his father’s first ever tractor, bought 40 years ago.

“Around one in three farmers has a tractor in need of repair . . . when we get our system right, we could be working on five tractors at a time because they will all be at different stages,” he says. Between them, they source the necessary parts and put in long hours of labour restoring the tractors, sometimes because they are of sentimental value to a farmer who simply wants to bring them to vintage shows.

Other student start-ups are more complex, such as the QR Golf smartphone app created by Eoin O’Doherty (16) and Matthew Lawlor (16) of Salesian Secondary School, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick.

The quick response (QR) app helps players navigate golf courses with professional tips and course information, available at the touch of a button on their Smartphone. The player’s phone becomes “their pro in the pocket”, according to O’Doherty.

The app transfers individual hole and bird’s-eye view pictures and information from golf course stroke savers onto an exclusively designed QR code. “We are pitching the idea to a golf club this month. We would like to conquer most of Munster and get it out there during golf events this summer,” says O’Doherty.

Often, parents are only half-joking when they ask if they can buy shares in their children’s companies, according to Ellen McCrossan (16) of Nerd Me from Seamount College, Kinvara, Galway.

McCrossan and her colleagues Helen MacMahon and Nicole Brennan created study aid tools with the trademark “nerd” glasses logo beside their “Revise Me” bookmarks and “Remember Me” stickers.

Brennan says they simply wanted to create something which would boost students’ organisation and help those struggling with dyslexia using specific colours to highlight important information.

The product is now in sale in places such as NUI Galway. “We are all very ambitious and believe in it as a product. We have ideas about other study aids . . . and other ideas about how to cross brand. The company could grow and grow and be successful in Ireland and the UK. We are going for the stars, we want to be as big as possible,” says Brennan.

Loman O’Byrne, chairperson of the enterprise education committee, county and city enterprise boards, says students are learning how the economy works and recognising the future role enterprise could play in job creation. The ideas are more sophisticated, more innovative than ever before.

“The increasing attributes in today’s students are confidence and optimism, and energy also. This generation fear nothing,” says O’Byrne.

“They’re not as cowed as their parents when it comes to this recession. These kids are resilient to what has happened, because for many, they don’t remember a pre-2008 in Ireland.”

This generation fear nothing . . . They’re not as cowed as their parents when it comes to this recession. These kids are resilient to what has happened