Enterprise scheme unveiled in Derbyshire
New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) project has been launched by three organisations in the region.
Through the scheme, jobseekers will be mentored by local businesses to help start their own micro business.
It has been spearheaded by Business in the Community; Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce and the Erewash Partnership.
The NEA, which is available to jobseekers' allowance claimants who have been out of work for 16 weeks or longer, was announced by the government on 5 October .
Heidi Watson, regional director of Business in the Community in the East Midlands, said that once a participant can demonstrate they have a viable business proposition, they will be able to access financial support.
She said: "Business in the Community was formed with the ethos that ‘Healthy Backstreets equals Healthy High Streets’. This programme embodies that ethos as it helps to create and maintain healthy backstreets and healthy high streets.
"The partners in the Derbyshire NEA Project believe that we can help people who have a viable business idea but could not set up a business and make it thrive on their own and so we need the assistance of willing business volunteers to help us. Nobody understands the importance of local business more than business itself."
