THE successes of some of the North-East's most original and inventive young entrepreneurs will be showcased next week.

An exhibition at Durham City's Gala Theatre on Monday will focus on business men and women who launched ventures after taking part in Durham Business School's Gleam programme - Graduate Learning of Entrepreneurship Accelerated through Mentoring.

The event will feature enterprises as diverse as a teddy bear maker, architectural glass designers, the head of an on-line recruitment company and a composer who provides music for projects ranging from films to websites.

The programme, under the wing of the business school's Foundation for SME Development, offers young graduates who want to work for themselves a year-long course in how to turn their ideas into a viable business.

Eighteen graduates took part in the course which finished this summer.

Other young entrepreneurs who will be displaying their success stories there include a website designer, two photographers, an installation artist and an innovative software company.

"Gleam is all about identifying young graduates located in the North-East who are likely to succeed as entrepreneurs and providing them with the business knowledge to make it happen,'' said programme director Wendy Parvin.

"But this is far from an academic programme, and neither is it aimed only at people planning what might be called mainstream businesses. Many Gleam members are from an artistic background, for example.''

She added: "A major factor of Gleam is that it teams the graduates up with carefully-chosen mentors with very practical business experience.''

The Gleam programme is open to anybody who has graduated in the past two years, whatever their age or subject studied. For further information visit the website at www.gleam.org.uk, or telephone 0191-374 3385.