A prestigious programme for budding entrepreneurs which has for the last ten years been held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is to be run in Scotland for the first time this summer.

The "Can Do Scale" programme will give potential entrepreneurs with a new start-up idea as well as entrepreneurs with an established businesses they want to grow the opportunity to be coached by business gurus Bill Aulet of MIT and Noam Wasserman of the Harvard Business School.

There are 70 fully-funded places worth £5,000 each available to attend the four-day course which gets underway on 4th August at the Stirling Management Centre. Included in the programme are intensive teaching sessions, guest lectures, team-building exercises and one-to-one sessions with tutors as well as networking lunches and dinners on each day.

"Scotland has yet to realise its full potential," Aulet says. "While it is very good at coming up with good ideas it often fails to commercialise them, which is why this workshop is so important.

"Original ideas are the most over-rated things and they cost money, it's the execution that makes money. Once you have an idea the process becomes much more important as does the team assembled to drive the execution."

"We can make people into better entrepreneurs by giving them best practice in terms of process as well as advice on how to be part of an effective team."

The programme is jointly funded by Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council. The deadline for applications is 7 July.