Graduates are initially offered a placement with companies

The "Unlocking Cornish Potential" project is being run by the Combined Universities in Cornwall.

The �2.6m project aims to provide 100 jobs for graduates following a similar successful programme in Devon.

The project will match the skills of graduates to the needs of companies and businesses will be given a financial incentive to take part.

Business development

The project follows a successful five-year programme run by the University of Plymouth.

Graduates are initially offered a placement with companies to undertake business development projects for employers.

About 75% of the companies taking part then went on to offer their graduates a permanent job.

Any business which decides to take on a graduate will receive 30% of the cost of taking them on from Objective One.

The project also provides ongoing mentoring and a wage subsidy for 15 months so firms can afford to continue to employ them.

Cornwall College is managing the project and college chief executive Dr Alan Stanhope said it was as much for the mentoring of businesses as it was for graduates.

He said: "There are a growing number of graduate jobs in Cornwall. But this is a matching scheme to give businesses the confidence to employ a graduate, which maybe they haven't done before."