12-11-2007
Jones offers business finance to young entrepreneurs
Businessman Peter Jones - of BB2 TV series Dragons' Den - is investing £100,000 in a scheme designed to promote entrepreneurial activity among schoolchildren.
Part of the National Enterprise Week, the Make Your Mark with a Tenner scheme sees young people receive £10 worth of business finance to help them start their own enterprise.
Jones told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he has committed £100,000 to next year's project.
Speaking to the show, he said: "We want school children, they’re going to be given £10 each, and the idea and the concept ... all they have to do is just return their £10 if they make money with their idea."
The 'dragon' also said more should be done to encourage entrepreneurial activity in the UK and that "we need to do far more".
Winners from the last competition included a doughnut-making business - which was the brainchild of Fazila Dadabhoy of Walthamstow School for Girls - and a snacks and stationary sales operation in Hertfordshire, run by Victoria Curl of Roundwood Park School.