School-leaver entrepreneurs to be offered 'Dragon's Den loans' Like the BBC television series, Dragons" Den, participants will have to submit a cogent business model to win funding. The scheme will harness the expertise of successful entrepreneurs, rather than civil servants, to judge which candidates deserve the loans. A senior Cabinet source suggested that the policy will "probably" be ready in time for the Budget on March 21. John Longworth, the director general of the British Chamber of Commerce, said the scheme could make a "real difference." "Access to start-up finance is one of the major obstacles young people face when starting a business," he said. The scheme comes after a recent study by Hiscox, the insurance company, found that half of new graduates were considering launching their own companies, but that many young people often lack the savings, experience or confidence to go it alone. The policy will be similar to a scheme promoted by Start-Up Britain, a campaign backed by companies such as Axa, Dell, Intel and PayPal, which provides free help to people starting their own business. Emma Jones, the chief executive of Start-Up Britain, said she was "closely involved" with Lord's Young scheme, but declined to comment on the policy this weekend. A Whitehall source said that the scheme would be supervised by the Treasury, rather than the Student Loans Company.