A COLLEGE is spearheading a scheme which aims to combat youth unemployment by creating a new generation of entrepreneurs.

North Hertfordshire College (NHC) is one of five further education institutions from across the country to found Gazelle, a new group formed by private and public sector leaders with the aim of helping thousands of students to find work or form their own companies.

Students enrolled at the college, which has campuses in Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth GC, will be among the first in the country to be involved in the scheme headed by the Gazelle Entrepreneurs, who include founder of BBC programme Dragons’ Den Peter Jones and former ‘Dragon’ Doug Richard.

“The launch of Gazelle is a hugely significant development for the further education sector,” said Fintan Donohue, principal of NHC, who will be called a ‘Gazelle Principal’ under the initiative.

“A group of leading colleges and some of this country’s foremost entrepreneurs are working together to create a new generation of entrepreneurial colleges with an ethos, values and culture that are distinctively geared towards wealth creation, business growth and employment outcomes.

“Students at North Hertfordshire College will be among the first in the country to experience the benefits of belonging to an entrepreneurial college - practising the skills that employers demand and acquiring the entrepreneurial attributes that will enable them to set up their own businesses.”

Doug Richard added: “I am a firm believer that entrepreneurship can be taught and must be learned and that’s why I am getting involved in an initiative that puts entrepreneurship at its core.

“We need a new generation of entrepreneurs who will deliver the young, fast-growth, gazelle businesses that create the new jobs, wealth and innovation, and the further education sector plays a critical part in delivering on this.”

The four other further educational institutions involved are City College Norwich, Gateshead College, New College Nottingham and Warwickshire College.