A PILOT scheme to foster a pioneering spirit in young people will become a long-term project.

Enterprise Place was established last year on the Tanfield Lea Industrial Estate near Stanley.

The project - believed to be the only one of its kind in the UK - aims to help build a new generation of entrepreneurs in Derwentside and encourage a more free-thinking attitude in pupils.

It has proved such a success that £640,000 has been awarded to find it a permanent home.

The project was the idea of entrepreneur Roy Stanley, head of the Tanfield Group PLC.

"If we are to increase the aspirations and ambitions of local youngsters, then we need to make enterprise learning more enjoyable and attractive," he said.

The scheme will be housed in the former One North-East building on the Tanfield Lea Industrial Estate, after operating from temporary offices provided by the Tanfield Group. Derwentside District Council is providing £450,000 for building works and equipment for the centre, which it received through the single programme capital fund.

The building will be leased back to Enterprise Place.

A further £190,000 has been pledged from the neighbourhood renewal fund, to pay salaries and running costs.

The centre will be run by a not-for-profit trust, with representatives on its board from schools, businesses, the council and Durham University.

The centre aims to run activities for pupils aged 14 to 16 that provide positive experiences of enterprise.

Teachers will be trained to bring enterprise into the mainstream curriculum.

Centre manager Martin Bell said: "The sessions involve the pupils in real life business issues and encourage them to come up with their own ideas to help them understand what it means to be an enterprising person."

Funding for the pilot scheme, which runs until next June, came from the Department for Education and Skills' National Enterprise Pathfinder Project.

Once its funding runs out, the centre will have to be self-sustaining.

Peter McDowell, development manager for Derwentside council, said: "We have the Derwentside Business Centre in Consett, but there is no equivalent in the Stanley area. This development will be ideal either for training or to help people develop their own new businesses, which will generate an income for the centre."