STUDENTS who have mastered web design with the help of The Northern Echo received awards last night.

The newspaper's editor, Peter Barron, presented certificates at Caf Gulp, in Darlington, to learners who have achieved level one in basic web design after free tuition from The Northern Echo's CommuniGate team.

The students benefited from one-to-one tuition to set up community websites.

Mr Barron said they had created a small piece of history by being the first to receive CommuniGate certificates.

"We have got over 1,700 websites now on CommuniGate, and hopefully that will rise to more than 2,000 by February 2004. We are very proud of that," he said.

For details about CommuniGate workshops visit www.communigateworkshops.co.uk.