Students with entrepreneurial flair will be sent to the US to learn how to make the most of their business ideas under plans for a scholarship to be unveiled by Gordon Brown later this year.

After introducing a re-quirement in September that children receive five days a year of education that promotes entrepreneurialism, the chancellor writes in today?s Financial Times that the government wants to add summer schools for budding businesspeople and the US scholarship programme.

Enterprise teaching in schools, which is backed with ?60m of funding from the Department for Education, has been introduced to encourage more young people to act on their business ideas. But some headteachers have been concerned about how they will fit this into the timetable alongside a curriculum they say is already crowded with compulsory content.

Heads, Teachers and Industry, an organisation that builds business links with education, said many schools lacked the skills and knowledge to put the plan into action. HTI is launching a scheme for businesspeople to be seconded for five days to help with enterprise programmes in schools.

Anne Evans, chief executive of HTI, said: ?Young people can be put off by business as they see it as boring but at the same time they think iPods are exciting. We need to demonstrate to young people that business is not just about figures but also the products and services they use every day. ?It?s about motivation rather than just teaching them about profit and loss.?

The Liberal Democrats, releasing a survey to coincide with Enterprise Week which showed 70 per of businesses felt they were hampered by a shortage of skilled workers, said it was more important to improve education outcomes.

Of those contacted by the party, 71 per cent said insufficient numbers of skilled workers had some or a significant negative impact. The problem was particularly acute for small and medium sized enterprises, of which 76 per cent felt they were disadvantaged by the poor numeracy and literacy of school leavers.

Norman Lamb, Lib Dem trade and industry spokesman, said billions of pounds were being spent on skills without any significant impact.

?While the government this week is looking to encourage the development of enterprising skills among our young people, it is clear there is still a significant gulf of expectation between the skills we are currently developing in our workforce and that needed by UK businesses,? Mr Lamb said.