The first minister is to become the first mentor as part of a competition run by youth organisation Young Scot

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has offered to mentor a woman aged between 18 and 23 as part of a prize in a charity competition.

The first minister said she is seeking to assist someone as she wants to set an example to other women in leadership roles to become mentors and help create a generation of future leaders and greater gender balance in organisations.

The competitton will be run by Young Scot with exact details of how it will work to be released at a later date.

It is known that the successful candidate will be offered mentoring for up to a year by Sturgeon.

Louise Macdonald, chief executive of Young Scot, said it was an “amazing opportunity” for young women in Scotland.

“Supporting young people in realising their career potential and meeting their ambitions is the responsibility of every leader in Scotland,” she said.

“Mentoring is a powerful way of helping young people achieve their goals and will help to create a new generation of positive role models to inspire other young women in the future.

“We're delighted to support the first minister and the Scottish Government with this new mentoring programme and we are encouraging as many young women from across Scotland as possible to apply for this amazing opportunity."

Sturgeon made the announcement while speaking at a diversity on private sector boards joint partnership event with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

There, she said equality was at the heart of her government’s vision and her ambition is for all our young people to have a fair chance to succeed.

She pointed out one of her first actions on becoming first minister was to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet and praised initiatives such as 50/50 by 2020 and the Scottish Business Pledge which have led to more than 300 businesses in Scotland committing to achieve gender equality on their boards.

Of the competition, she added: "I’m determined to play my personal part by becoming a mentor and I would urge other women in leadership roles to do the same.

“Together, we can be female role models for the next generation and encourage and empower young women to discover their own leadership potential.”