United kick off their Northern Group D fixtures - and play in the competition for the first time in their history - when they face Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday (kick-off 7.30pm BST).
The tournament was relaunched last season, with under-21 sides from Premier League academies invited to play against first teams from Leagues One and Two.
It is intended to help to bridge the gap between age group football and the professional game and although there was some opposition to the new format last season, 66.6 per cent of League One and League Two clubs voted in favour of retaining it.
Coventry beat Oxford in last year's final in front of 74,434 fans at the national stadium.
And, ahead of the Magpies' trip to the Alexandra Stadium, Beardsley told nufc.co.uk: "At the end of it, we've got a chance to go to Wembley.
"I spoke to Scott Sellars (now under-23s coach at Wolves) and Glyn Hodges (Stoke's under-23s coach), who both played for Newcastle and who I know well, and they said the experience their boys got from it last year was massive.
"It is a brilliant experience for everybody; a brilliant experience for me as a coach, great for Ben (Dawson, Professional Development Phase Coach), for Simon (Tweddle, fitness coach), who's been with the first team before, Carl (Nelson), who's a top physio, George (Ramshaw) the kitman, Chris Terpcou (goalkeeping coach)… we have a lot of good people that it'll be a great experience for, and I include myself in that.
"I'm really, really looking forward to it."
Invitations are extended to the top 16 academy teams from last season who hold category one status.
Last season, United declined an invitation to enter the tournament but have joined the likes of Manchester City and Tottenham in taking up the opportunity this time around.
Beardsley explained: "Our priority as a football club last year was getting promotion back to the big league, so that was one of the reasons, but also at the start of last season we had a very young group.
"In the end, we had more of a senior group with Stuart Findlay and Curtis Good at the heart of it, but at the very start we lost a lot on loan - Arma (Adam Armstrong), Sammy Ameobi, Haris (Vuckic), Ivan Toney. We lost most of our more senior players so we had a discussion and we didn't feel we were equipped for it.
"We decided as a club that the priority was definitely getting the first team back into the big league and Rafa's done great for us on that point. Now we feel we're able to manage a bit more.
"You look at what we had against Middlesbrough on Friday night, and on Tuesday we'll have Curtis Good back, we'll have Yasin (Ben El-Mhanni) back), we'll have Callum Roberts back and Victor (Fernandez), so that gives us a bit more strength.
"We're in a better position to do well. We have a lot of players and a lot of games, because we have the International Cup as well, so there's a lot to look forward to."
Tickets for Tuesday night's match are £10 for adults, £6 for seniors and £2 for under-16s.
