Under the enterprise fellowships scheme, which will be finalised in time for next year’s Budget, about 20 students will attend a year-long scholarship programme run by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Gordon Brown hopes that the scheme will help to build a culture of entrepreneurism in Britain that is similar to that in America. He may also announce an overhaul of the Small Firms Loan Guarantee (SFLG) scheme to make it easier for fledgeling businesses to access finance.

Last week the Government expanded the scheme, which enables it to underwrite bank loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), raising the turnover limit for eligible SMEs from £3 million to £5.6 million.

It is understood that Mr Brown will tailor the terms and conditions of the scheme so that applicants from different sectors have more chance of being granted a loan. Under the new application procedures, banks could overlook student debts for recent graduates, making it easier for enterpreneurial graduates to secure backing for their business.

Mr Brown has long been keen to emulate the success of the US in fostering entrepreneurship. About 6.3 per cent of Britons were planning or involved in a start-up last year, compared with 11.3 per cent in America, according to a recent survey by Babson College, the respected business school in Wellesley, Massachussetts, and the London Business School.

Recipients of the enterprise fellowships, which will be backed by the Government and administered by the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship, will spend time at a university in America, carry out work experience in a graduate start-up company and visit the headquarters of the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. The scheme will be open to final or penultimate-year students, most likely those studying engineering, science or technology. Organisers hope that the awards will carry similar kudos to Rhodes Scholarships.

The Foundation, started by Ewing Kauffman, a pharmaceutical tycoon who died in 1993, has given millions of dollars in grants to promote entrepreneurship in the United States.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Universities should have a more entrepreneurial zeal to encourage more graduates to start their own business.”

The new plans come less than a month after the second annual Enterprise Week, an initiative set up by Mr Brown to encourage more young people to start their own businesses.

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