Leeds Met students and staff joined Deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Andrew Barker with young people from across West Yorkshire for the official launch of the Go2uni.net website.

Funded by Leeds Met and Aimhigher, the Go2uni.net project has been designed to provide young people in West Yorkshire with in depth information, advice and guidance about higher education and the options that are available to them.

The launch ceremony at the Electric Press building in Millennium Square on Saturday kicked of with a number of key speeches from project managers and young people involved in the scheme.

Following this, the website was launched by the Deputy Lord Mayor, before the young people who took part in the project were presented with an Acer Notebook, rewarding them for their hard work.

Chris Morley, Project Co-ordinator from the Get Ahead team at Leeds Met said: "The launch ceremony was a huge success and a great start to the Go2uni project. The boys were really pleased to receive their laptops after working so hard alongside us to develop a website for young people that is a clear, easy to understand and a fun and interactive way to learn about higher education. We really hope that the project will help people, especially those who never really considered university as an option before, to develop positive attitudes and aspirations about higher education."

The website is aimed specifically, but not exclusively, at boys from the West Yorkshire region, eight of whom helped design the site after taking part in a special course where they worked alongside students at Leeds Metropolitan University and  gained first hand experience in web design, graphic design, games design and marketing.

Joe Smith, a young participant on the course gave a speech at the event, and said: "Despite the early starts, I had a fantastic time. I met some really cool guys from university and learnt loads of new things like how to use PhotoShop, Flash and Illustrator. It gave us a glimpse of university life and completely changed our opinions. Before the course I pictured university students as somewhat stuck up, spoilt and not too much fun to be around, however after working with them I realise that they are just cool, normal people who want to get a degree to improve their futures."

The site contains interactive games, competitions, student blogs and career profiles, in addition to information related to student finance, accommodation, freshers' weeks and career options.