Leeds Metropolitan has teamed up with Leeds City Council to help public relations students get training, study assistance and boost employment chances among graduates.

A partnership between the two organisations has been developing for several years which gives students the opportunity to do real work for a real organization, contributes to their learning and can often make a difference to their final grade.

This year, a number of PR undergraduates have been carrying out various projects to audit different council activities, for instance, investigating issues such as culture and internal communications.

Shirley Beresford, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Leeds Met said: "We have had a strong relationship with Leeds City Council for many years with a number of our students being offered the valuable opportunity to do some 'real' work.

"We've carried out a range of projects - such as communication audits - in a number of council departments.

"Feedback from the work is excellent and I'm delighted that we continue to develop new opportunities for students and Leeds City Council in the future."

Andy Carter, head of communications at Leeds City Council said: "There's no point in getting students in on work experience only for them to sit there watching what the council's communications team does.

"Instead, they need to be involved and getting their hands dirty.

"That's why our work with Leeds Met is so valuable - the council gets something out of it and the students benefit too."

Councillor Richard Brett, joint leader and executive board member with responsibility for communications said: "These students are potential council communicators of the future and I'm delighted that we're able to offer them the opportunity to work closely with us.

"Proper 'on the job' training is by far the best way of gaining new skills.

"The fact their work has the potential to help us improve our services is a definite bonus."

One of the latest joint projects between the University and the Council is being managed by students Mary O'Shea and Jenny Singh.

The duo investigating whether the use of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are effective as communications channels for the council's libraries service.

The results will be shared with the authority and used to improve the service.

Social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular and are being used by many organisations to support their PR and marketing activities.

Mary and Jenny are keen to collect a range of views and have set up a short online questionnaire which they are asking people to complete.