A RECORD 350 teams have entered the fourth Newstalk/ Irish TimesStudent Enterprise Competition which aims to test students' ability to work as a team while tackling real business issues. The 1,400 participating students, drawn from the National Colege of Ireland and the 15 ITs, have already completed the preliminary round of the competition.

Each team is given a company case study to evaluate. It then writes a business plan which should address commercial challenges and demonstrate the team's skills in background research, clear thinking, good teamwork and polished presentation skills.

The finals of the competition take place next February and the winning team will spend a study week in the Caribbean shadowing senior executives in the Digicel Group.