10 January 2011
Enterprising plumbing students have copped on to an inventive new business idea that sees them making works of art out of recycled materials like copper.
The group of 8 students from South Eastern Regional College (SERC) came up with the idea after identifying that there was excess copper piping left over in the college workshops which was obsolete.
Following research they opted to design and make decorative garden pieces by recycling the copper. Still very much at the developmental stage, the group are donating their first ‘work of art’ to the Northern Ireland Hospice Shop for fundraising.
Sharon Browne, Entrepreneurship and Business Start-up Officer with SERC added:
“We have been able to provide one-to-one support to the Copp’Art students, enabling them to get a very real taste of what it’s like to set up their own company. We provide mentoring and business skills training to the students and they are supported by one of the SERC’s 7 Enterprise Champions.”
This initiative is supported through the Advancing Enterprise programme, funded by the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) where students are encouraged to develop business skills and experience what it is like to start and run a business whilst they study.
SERC Enterprise Champion Stephen McGreevy commented:
“SERC is very much at the forefront of environmental thinking and has embedded this ethos into courses across the college. So when our plumbing students were tasked with coming up with a business idea, they identified this route very early on. They identified that there were off cuts of copper that were not suitable for use in a plumbing context and debated what they could be used for. When they came up with the idea of making sculptures it seemed to be a really great fit.”
The group are at the start of their business journey but they provide a good example of how we can recycle what’s seen to many as waste, into tangible, marketable products. Any profits generated from sales will be put back into the Copp’Art business.