A FORMER star of TV’s The Apprentice is hoping to encourage more young people to enter the world of business.

Claire Young, who was a finalist in the 2008 series of the show and has since worked closely with Huddersfield University to promote entrepreneurship, has launched TeenBiz.

The Wakefield woman’s brainchild is billed as the UK’s first not-for-profit business start-up scheme for under-18s.

Claire, 33, has set up the enterprise in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland – making RBS the first and only high street bank to offer teenagers a business bank account without the approval of a parent or guardian.

The TeenBiz scheme is free for students and aims to help 100 new businesses on their way over the next three years – with 24 awards of up to £500 being given in the first year and numbers growing each subsequent year.

Claire is aiming to generate funding in 2012 to enable a TeenBiz Tour. She hopes to visit one school in every region and for 1,200 students to attend. The scheme has been launched as the number of unemployed aged 16 to 24 has hit a record high of 991,000, with a jobless rate of 21.3%.

Applications for funding can be made at www.teenbiz.org.uk and will be reviewed from January 1. Two applicants every month in the first year will receive up to £500 along with a mentor and a start-up pack.

Claire said successful applicants would get a “Business in a Box” – including registration with Companies House, business cards, a website, a voucher for stationery, office space and a virtual PA service as well as “highly valuable” mentoring time.

Claire said Prime Minister David Cameron had promised “the most entrepreneurial decade we’ve seen”.

But she added: “There are few actions to reflect this. We gear up young people at school to start their own businesses and provide them with very little support.

“I believe for enterprise to have longevity there needs to be something which is sustainable.

“I want to build TeenBiz and the first 24 winners will ultimately become the company’s young board of directors and help influence the business. There is no-one better to ask about young people than young people themselves!”

Claire has worked with several Huddersfield area businesses.

Alongside RBS, business networking groups Yorkshire Mafia and Brand Yorkshire have also sponsored students.