Wormery Winners in SERC Enterprise Showcase

A team of adult returners from SERC’s Newcastle Campus have scooped  South Eastern Regional College’s (SERC) annual Enterprise Showcase Winners title.

The Showcase followed Enterprise Fortnight, when 600 teams of students from across six SERC Campuses took part in a project-based learning (PBL) competition. Students were tasked to find solutions to real-world challenges related to their area of study and to present their innovations to judges.  Nine projects were selected to pitch their business and social enterprise ideas in a Dragon’s Den style event which, to add to the pressure, was live streamed from the SERC Media Centre in Bangor.

Access Level 3 Diploma in Foundation Studies students, Jamie Clarke (Castlewellan), Nicholas Rennie (Newcastle) and Brian O’Neill (Newcastle), from the College’s Newcastle Campus, scooped first place with The Red Wrigglers Wormery.  The team set out to promote recycling by building a compartmentalised box designed to recycle efficiently using worms to break down biodegradable refuse. The first wormery has been built, installed and trialled in the Newcastle Campus. The Access Diploma students hope to build more wormeries and deliver educational workshops in the very near future.  

Fellow Access Level 3 Diploma in Foundation Studies students Conor Melville (Drumaness), Helen McFarlane (Ballynahinch) and Gerard Campbell (Ballynahinch) from the Ballynahinch Campus took second place with their business concept, Hallowed Grounds. Their product is a coffee-based exfoliating soap, which uses recycled coffee grounds, natural essential oils and soap base. Their project is unique as reusing coffee grounds -  that would otherwise be disposed of in landfill - gives them a secondary use, unlike other natural exfoliants.   

Third place went to Level 3 Professional Cookery students Catrina Stanfield (Newtownards) and Maisa Muir (Bangor) from the Bangor campus who joined forces to present Buy it, Cook it, Eat it’'. Challenged to help local businesses sell their produce to support the local economy, the duo worked to entice the public to try new dishes. They collaborated with local butcher Corries at the Ards and North Down Council Tide and Turf Festival in Portavogie. Festival-goers were invited to buy meat from the butcher's stall and bring to the SERC student cooks, who would use the produce to create one of the meals they had planned for the event. They took cost and speed into consideration, to ensure they made a profit and that the customers had fast food. The students are planning to work with other local suppliers to further promote their business and Northern Irish produce. 

Lizzie Buick, Deputy Head of Enterprise said, “Huge congratulations to winners, The Red Wrigglers Wormery, and to Hallowed Grounds and Buy it, Cook it, Eat it who took second and third place respectively, and to all our finalist in the 2021 SERC Enterprise Showcase which I think was best year ever.  The projects presented were outstanding and of the highest quality and we look forward to hearing about future developments.”

Michael Holmes, Deputy Head of Enterprise said, “We would like to think the prestigious panel of judges who gave up their time to judge the students PBL enterprises.   Their support and feedback were invaluable and really encourages the students to embrace that entrepreneurial spirit which is part of the learning at SERC. So, thank you to, Robert Ferguson, Director of Four Gears Media and Co-Founder of Utopian Digital Learning Academy, Gemma Drinkell, Marketing Specialist at Texthelp and Co-Founder of StablePro, Marianne Kennerley, Founder and Director of Boom! Studios and Gary Ritchie, Head of Curriculum Development at SERC.”