Seven student entrepreneurs from St Malachy's College are to represent Northern Ireland in the UK finals of the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards.

The Awards, which are to be held next week in London's Savoy Hotel, aims to recognise and support young people who want to learn more about business enterprise.

Swotto Publications – the company set up by the St Malachy's students - was inspired by the experience of sitting their GCSE exams, as they realised there was an opportunity to help younger pupils with their revision through producing a CD-ROM of study notes. Market research revealed that science was the hardest subject to revise, and so guides for Physics, Chemistry and Biology were produced, and Swotto's marketing campaign extended into neighbouring schools to broaden their sales.

Having already won the Northern Ireland Regional Final of the competition, the group will now have to convince the panel of judges that their approach has been more innovative than the eleven other finalist companies from around the UK. If they are successful, they are successful, they will get the chance to compete at the European Finals in Paris during August.

Peter Westgarth, chief executive of Young Enterprise UK, said: "This has been another exceptional year for Young Enterprise, and we congratulate the twelve outstanding companies who made it through to the competition finals from the 4,000 who entered this year. As always, the entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by this year's finalists bodes well for the future of the UK economy."

(CL)