A university has teamed up with an international sports news website to help journalism students faced with a lack of work experience due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The University of Central Lancashire has teamed up with Prost International, a growing sports site that originates in the USA.

Participating students will have their work published and promoted by the Prost International site, which is based in England.

Steve Canavan, formerly of BBC Sport and Blackpool daily The Gazette, is course leader at the Preston-based university’s BA (Hons) sports journalism course.

Steve, pictured, said: “Making sure students are fully equipped to work as sports journalists when they graduate is central to our course, so the links with industry are really important and we aim to improve them all the time.

“The care and thought Prost have shown towards our students since the pilot started has been incredible.

“It’s so good to see the students properly integrated into a company, not just be left to sink or swim but to have some proper support and mentorship.”

Steve added the Prost editors had already reported back on the “excellent attitude” of the first tranche of students who had been signed up.

He said: “There are lots of talented writers out there but having the right attitude can help you stand out from the crowd – so it’s really good that they’re working on their practical skills as well as getting the chance to shine.”

Steve Clare originally founded Prost Amerika in 2006 in Seattle with the International site following 12 years later.

He said: “Currently there are few bridges between university journalism courses and the real world, between the academic and the practical.

“We are delighted to embark on this partnership with UCLan and its students. The pilot project has gone superbly with some excellent contributions and pieces by the UCLan group already having been published.

“Prost is looking forward to providing a friendly but challenging environment for further UCLan students in the months to come.”

You can read all our coronavirus-related stories here.