Staff from NatWest bank have launched a proejct to teach young people about starting their own businesses.

Business advisors from the bank were joined by key strategic partners in taking the “Ambitions Bus” to the University of East London to provide focused education and advice on starting and growing a business.

NatWest has worked closely with a number of London’s enterprise agencies to understand the needs of the market and to tailor a number of free workshops. The first of them were run by both the NatWest Business team and a range of industry experts including:

UKTI - providing advice on international trade

HMRC - providing tax related advice and guidance on what do when getting started in business

OneLeap - a not-for-profit organisation that will run their pitching programme - “Pitchme”

Launch 48 - a high tech organisation, that specialise in IT and social media.

The launch of the initiative on March 8 coincided with International Women’s Day. As a supporter of Women in Business, NatWest had a number of female employees on the bus. They provided advice about the schemes, networks and support available for female entrepreneurs.

Femi Bola, Director of Employability at UEL, said: “This was a great chance for UEL’s aspiring entrepreneurs to learn the vitals of self-employment and enterprise from experienced and dedicated professionals. I’m really glad they decided to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Nick Howe, Enterprise Manager for NatWest Business Banking in London, said: “As a bank we are fully committed to supporting young entrepreneurs as a way of stimulating the economy. We would encourage anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship or in starting their own business to come aboard the Mobile Business School to see what kind of help and support is available.”