For anyone whoever thought of starting his or her own business, the EnterpriseSTART programme could be the key to a new career. Now in its fourth year, the programme continues to attract a high level of interest from potential Entrepreneurs with approximately 80 per cent of candidates going on to develop their business concept wither on a part- of full-time basis.

Graduates in Cork and throughout the country looking for work are to be allowed participate in a new training programme without impacting on their social welfare entitlements, according to Fianna Fail TD and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin.

Over 300 job vacancies are being posted every week on a new mobile and online platform, Txtajob.ie. This new platform provides job seekers with relevant job vacancy alerts via mobile phone. Txtajob.ie now has over 1,300 real job vacancies available to jobseekers spanning 80 different job categories covering a broad range of professional and trade positions across a wide section of industries from the engineering and medical sectors through to the hospitality and retail sectors.

A national report has recommended the construction of a fibre optic Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) in Mallow, Co. Cork. The report, from the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), called for MANs in Cork to be expanded and this was welcomed by e|net, the company that holds the concession to manage, maintain and operate the State's MAN broadband programme.

Over 60 members and guests attended the first Network Cork meeting of 2010, which took place on Wednesday 20 January at the Maryborough Hotel and Spa. The guest speaker at the event was internationally renowned speaker and author, Veronica Canning. Welcoming those in attendance, Sandra Maher, President of Network Cork said: "2009 turned out to be a dynamic year for Network Cork as we worked together through a very challenging year.

Cork is the second most popular location in the country for new start-up businesses. The latest Bank of Ireland (BOI) barometer shows 13,327 new businesses started trading in 2009. This represented a 9 per cent decrease on the 2008 figure but was less than anticipated. While nearly half of all start-ups were based in the Dublin area, Cork had 1,227 new businesses in 2009. The services sector saw the largest number of stat-ups.

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Listening to the wildly varying musings and forecasts on both the current mire the Irish economy is in and any prospective upturn, the one thing that's clear is that every 'expert' has different opinions and these usually have some element of self-service. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), however, as an independent body is able to deliver a analysis that is listened to keenly and is well respected.

Students in Cork are getting the chance to see what the business world is like up close with a government initiative. Fourteen schools in Cork are twinning with 17 locally based companies to give their students the business edge that will help them to develop their careers when they enter the workforce. Among the Cork schools taking part in the programme are Bishopstown Community School, Mayfield Community School, North Presentation Secondary School and St Vincent's Secondary School.

Craftspeople from ten Cork businesses in South Cork, West Cork and Cork City will be representing the county at the Showcase Expo in Dublin this month, meeting thousands of international buyers from across Europe, North America and Asia. An estimated 5,000 buyers from Ireland, Japan, the US, France, Germany and Italy will be attending Showcase over the four days, to see the work of 450 craftspeople.