Aspiring young entrepreneurs are invited to attend the seven-day “BizCamp” at the Bermuda College this month.

The camp, to be held from July 16 to 20, and July 23 and 24, is being staged by the Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative in conjunction with the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation.

Participants for the free-of-charge camp, between the ages of 13 and 17, will be admitted on a rolling basis until the 24 spots are filled.

Over the past 17 years close to 1,000 youths have developed and presented business plans, earning certificates for participating in the programme.

During these intensive programmes, students use textbooks, a syllabus-specific workbook, online research, guest lecturers and field-based market research to learn about opportunity recognition, cost of goods, pricing, marketing and many other aspects of running a company. Their objective is to develop and present their own comprehensive business plan at the end of the session.

Joe Mahoney, executive director of the YEI, uses curriculum from a combination of sources including the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Babson College and the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education.

“The goal is to inspire young people to become business-savvy and economically self-sufficient,” Mr Mahoney said.

“Participants are provided with a business-plan template. After learning the concepts, they complete the plan with information for their own business idea and present it to a panel of judges selected from the business community.”

Jamillah Lodge, of the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, who also served as a BizCamp judge, said: “This is an awesome opportunity to see what the future of Bermudian entrepreneurship looks like.”

There is no cost for students who are accepted to attend BizCamp thanks to the support of the Bermuda Government and other sponsors the Bank of Bermuda Foundation, Tokio Millennium Re, Chubb Charitable Foundation, XL/Catlin Foundation, Argo Foundation, and One Communications.

Electronic applications are available at www.bedc.bm (follow the BizCamp link in Events), and the government portal, www.gov.bm. Or send an e-mail to: jmahoney@gov.bm