Helping Yorkshire and Humber graduates find employment as the recession bites is behind a Boot Camp training scheme being run by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

Taking place in Beverley, East Yorkshire, it highlights the challenges and opportunities of side-stepping the milk round by starting a business.

Workshops and seminars cover topics from financial planning and tax issues to marketing and how to network successfully.

The sessions are run by support advisors such as Business Link Yorkshire and HM Revenue and Customs, with former Boot Camp `conscripts` providing moral support.

The scheme is an offshoot of Yorkshire Forward's graduate enterprise programme run by Huddersfield University to encourage students across the region to start up their own companies.

This expands on a similar three-year pilot scheme that created 173 new businesses, and takes place in 11 of the region's universities, covering topics that can be studied in addition to normal degrees.