AN opportunity is being given to would-be Blackburn with Darwen entrepreneurs to brush up on their digital skills on the way to making their first million.

The Making Rooms and the borough council team up to host Tech Blackburn, a technology start-up accelerator.

And recruitment for the latest round of the three-month program, at their base in Exchange Street, is well underway.

Tom MacPherson-Pope, who runs The Making Rooms, said the idea behind the course was to enable those with an initial business concept to develop their idea into a fully-functioning enterprise.

He told the Telegraph: "We provide expertise from market analysis and product prototyping to crowd funding and marketing.

"The programme will see attendees from an initial spark of an idea, to having your first prototype, learning how to find your customers and pitching to investors.

"We help each three-month cohort of eight entrepreneurs through the processes of assessing and validating ideas, product development and prototyping, and then planning the routes to market."

Supporters of the scheme are on the lookout for go-getters, from within the borough's boundaries, who can commit to working intensively over 12 weeks on their chosen product or field.

Tom added: "Blackburn and the North-West has a rich history of technological innovation, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, from Manchester playing host to the UK's first Fab Lab rapid prototyping lab, to Blackburn now being home to the best quipped Fab Lab nationwide.

"We are seeing a societal shift towards inventive startups and entrepreneurship and away from the standard nine-to-five desk jobs.

"The rate of technological advancement increasing and customers demanding more ethical and personal connection from the brands they buy has put start-ups in a perfect position to quickly react to market opportunities."

For more details either call 01254 460150, e-mail info@makingrooms.org or go online to www.makingrooms.org/techblackburn