University students are being given responsibility for bringing in and writing a daily news page for a leading regional newspaper.

The initiative for postgraduate journalism trainees is the brainchild of the Yorkshire Evening Post and Leeds Trinity University.

Editor Jeremy Clifford said the paper would gain from better community content and the students should benefit from boosted job prospects.

He said: “We have a long tradition of working with the university which has seen us employ many of their students once they have graduated.

“This new working relationship gives the trainees real-time experience of working on live newspaper pages in a live newspaper environment, which I hope will enhance their job prospects.

“It also allows us to extend our coverage of community news which we otherwise would not be able to do.

“It works for the trainees and for us.”

Each trainee will be given a “patch” to cover and will also be responsible for multimedia coverage, which will include vox pops and videos for inclusion on the newspaper’s website.

They will each be mentored by a member of the YEPs reporting team.

Postgraduate print and digital journalism course leader Lisa Bradley will continue training  the postgraduates from the Yorkshire Evening Post offices each week.

The trainees have already been responsible for bringing in stories that have been used in the main pages of the newspaper and online.

Yesterday was the first time they saw their own page in print, branded as being ” brought to you by trainee journalists at Leeds Trinity University.”

The project will be a permanent feature of postgraduate journalism at Leeds Trinity University, with future trainees working as Yorkshire Evening Post’s student reporters for the majority of their studies.

Lisa said: “Giving our journalism trainees hands-on, professional experience is a huge part of all journalism training at Leeds Trinity University, and there’s certainly nothing like the responsibility of producing a page of news each week for the region’s biggest newspaper.”

Traineee Lauren Wafer-Kiddle described the initiative as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”

She said: “To get to work at such a respected newspaper is incredible. Nothing beats seeing your name in print and we will get to see that weekly.”