The £112m scheme gives under 30s access to government loans of up to a maximum of £15,000, although typically £2,500, with a 12-month repayment holiday followed by a three to five-year repayment plan at a rate of RPI plus 3%.
 
The scheme was originally worth £82.5m and aimed at 18-to-24 year olds but, amid concerns that not enough applications had been received prior to the first tranche of payouts last September, it was expanded this year to include under-30s as well.

Launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the initiative is administered by the Start Up Loans Company, headed by entrepreneur James Caan, and delivered by a list of approved private sector providers.

This week Printing.com became the latest delivery partner for the scheme, focussing on young people that want to start up in the printing and graphic arts industries.

A team from Printing.com will interview, mentor and develop business plans with applicants and if successful the candidates will have their business plans approved by chief executive Tony Rafferty.

Overall the scheme aims to help 45,000 young entrepreneurs by 2015 and Rafferty said he was aiming to help 200 over the coming year.

He added: "We’ve provided mentoring under our franchise model so we know how to help people get going. But under this scheme the mentoring will be done on a non-partisan basis."

"We could meet someone who wants to set up as a reseller for our closest competitor but we are acting in good faith and we will go through the business plan with them as we would with anyone else," he explained.

"Obviously our expertise is in franchising so we’ll be working in that area as well."

Rafferty said he expected many applications for creative design and pre-press businesses and those wanting to take the first steps into production. "There aren’t exactly a lot of jobs for people now so this is a great option for them."

He said that the scheme could also be suitable for young printers who may be under threat of redundancy to make a down payment on a digital printer and start out on their own.

"We’d love to help that profile of business as well," he added.

For more information visit www.printing.com/entrepreneurs.