By Francis Chan

MR RONALD Wong, 25, had long dreamed of being his own boss.

Three years ago, after a brief stint in law school and a job at a securities firm, he felt that it was time to start his own business.

But the former Anglo-Chinese Junior College student soon discovered that entrepreneurship was tough, even though his fitness consultancy to primary schools was, in his own words, 'quite' successful.

'I had trouble finding enough qualified staff to meet the rising demand from the primary schools,' he said.

'And after a year, I began to realise that although I had the drive and passion, I still lacked the fundamentals in running a business.'

It was on his return to the National University of Singapore, this time in business school, that he stumbled upon a campus roadshow featuring a new scholarship programme offered by Spring Singapore.

The Executive Development Scholarship (EDS) is a new undergraduate scholarship offered by Spring - the leading government agency for enterprise development - to outstanding candidates who not only possess good grades but are also driven to run their own businesses in the future.

The study award scheme, which is one part of Spring's new three-tier Business Leaders Initiative (BLI), is a $60 million programme designed to produce more competent leaders to run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here.

The second part is the Management Development Scholarship (MDS), which aims to groom young managers from growing SMEs by co-sponsoring part-time or full-time MBA programmes with employers.

'For SMEs, it is even more crucial that they compete and equip themselves with good managerial and executive talents so they can grow their business,' said Spring chairman Philip Yeo yesterday, at a ceremony to present the scholarships to 21 aspiring entrepreneurs. In this pioneer BLI cohort are 17 EDS and four MDS recipients.

EDS scholars like Mr Wong can now look forward to internships at Spring or a growth-oriented SME. Upon graduation, they will have to serve a bond of just two years at Spring.

Depending on conditions set by their sponsoring employers, MDS scholars will return to their sponsor's firm to complete a pre-agreed tenure.

SMEs which are eligible for the MDS programme must have a turnover of at least $10 million, and be able to offer career development opportunities to their scholars.

Spring said it aims to award 500 EDS and MDS scholarships over the next 10 years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 25, 2008.