Register now for event for young rural entrepreneurs

Are you a young entrepreneur in rural Scotland? Want to improve your business skills?

If so, register for the Scottish Agricultural and Rural Youth Pre-Accelerator Programme Ignition event to be held on Tuesday 22 October at 10am at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston.

The Scottish Agricultural and Rural Youth Pre-Accelerator Programme​ is a collaboration between the Rural Youth Project, NFU Scotland Next Gen and Scottish Association of Young Farmers. It will be delivered in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland as an extension of their Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme.

The eight-week online course aims to foster greater entrepreneurship within Scottish agriculture and rural communities and was developed as a result of the unique challenges start-ups in rural areas face. To participate in the course you must attend the Pre-Accelerator Ignition Event in October. Following the event, participants will complete modules over eight weeks in subjects such as Mindset, Early Stage Business Model Canvas, Customer Validation and Development, and, following graduation, have the opportunity to enrol in the fuller 16-week course.

Amy Dunnachie, a Rural Youth Project vlogger who lives on the Isle of Jura, has had some experience of business support for her creative enterprise and highlights how initiatives like the programme are essential.

She said:

"To keep young people in rural places like Jura, and also to encourage more young people to move in, we need to make the tools to build business accessible; not only sustaining them practically and financially whilst developing transferable skills, but positively impacting the local community as well.

"The Scottish Agricultural and Rural Youth Pre-Accelerator Programme will give young people the opportunity to step up, take charge of their future and gain the confidence to carve their own path in the place they call home."

Director and co-founder of the Rural Youth Project, Rebecca Dawes, encourages any young person who has started, or looking to start, their own business to attend the Pre-Accelerator Ignition Event.

She said:

"Results from the Rural Youth Project survey found that young people are interested in becoming entrepreneurs and small to medium business owners but simply don’t know where to start. This partnership between Royal Bank of Scotland, NFU Scotland Next Generation, Scottish Association of Young Farming Clubs and the Rural Youth Project will support rural youth in their quest to create 'cool businesses' and could be one of the solutions to stemming the depopulation of youth from regional areas."

For more information on Royal Bank of Scotland Entrepreneur Accelerator visit https://www.business.rbs.co.uk/business/business-banking/services/entrepreneur-accelerator.html or follow #powerup and to register for the Pre-Accelerator Ignition Event visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pre-accelerator-in-partnership-with-scottish-agriculture-and-rural-youth-tickets-69978953935