BUDDING entrepreneurs from deprived areas of the region are to be given the opportunity to train at local university business schools to acquire the skills to start their own ventures.

New Entrepreneurship Scholarships, part of a Government initiative, will be launched at Durham County Cricket Club, in Chester-le-Street, later this month.

The news came on the day that MPs in the House of Commons were debating the role of small firms and entrepreneurs in Britain's economy.

About 71 per cent of the jobs created in the past five years were in small and medium- sized firms, which now have an annual turnover of an estimated £1 trillion.

The new programme will be delivered by enterprise agency Entrust, the Universities of Northumbria and Teesside, and The Prince's Trust.

The 20 initial scholarships available will offer people educational training tailored to their individual needs, plus on-going business support and grant assistance.

The educational programme will be delivered by the two university partners as well as Entrust.

The Prince's Trust, which helps more than 400 people in the North-East into business every year, will provide the entrepreneurs with grants and continuous support via a team of volunteer business mentors.

Entrust will manage the initiative, which aims to develop a business start-up programme geared to the needs of entrepreneurs from deprived areas.

Steve Clark, from Entrust, said: "This will be a high prestige programme and its delivery will be flexible enough to meet a diversity of needs.

"No one will be excluded from the scheme simply because basic education requirements such as literacy have to be addressed before the individual can progress to learning how to run a business.

"People in deprived areas frequently have the ideas and the acumen to succeed, but lack the opportunity to put them into practice.

"The New Entrepreneurship Scholarships are beginning the process of redressing the balance and demonstrating that enterprise is open to all."

l The scholarship programme will be launched at Durham County Cricket Club, in Chester-le-Street, on Thursday, July 26.