A BLACKBURN entrepreneur has launched a new bursary scheme which aims to help disadvantaged people gain into careers in the tech industry.

IN4.0 Group founder and CEO Mo Isap hopes that the scheme will help talented people find their ways into highly skilled jobs or start new businesses.

He hopes that this will help to create new opportunities for people in East Lancashire and the North West, whilst making the region a hub for the technology industry.

Mr Isap said: “We are really passionate about creating opportunities, jobs and training for those individuals from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds.

"Diversity and inclusion are in our DNA, and we are all about the people we can support which is why we have established the HOST Bursary Scheme.

"With the help of our bursary partners and patrons, we will be able to guarantee the long-term sustainability of access to our programmes and services so we can continue to deliver tangible jobs and life-changing opportunities to the people we support.

"This bursary will be the bridge to prosperity for those furthest away from technology futures.”

Blackburn-born Mr Isap is also inviting other organisations to pledge their support as a bursary partner or a patron.

He says that by supporting the bursary, organisations could make a potentially life changing difference for talented local people who would not have otherwise been able to access the kind of programmes, training and support that HOST offers.

The bursary could also help a female entrepreneur access the FreelanceHER 100 programme and a 12-month membership at HOST, also run by Mr Isap's company, or it could provide a start-up entrepreneur with the opportunity to join HOST’s incubation programme.

This comes after IN4.0 Group previously launched the FreelanceHER 100 accelerator programme last year, with the firm's HOST facility funding places for over 50 per cent of the women who took part as they were ineligible for external support.

To find out more, email IN4.O Group partnership and innovation manager Dale Sidebottom at: dale@in4group.co.uk.