At a time when college graduates are struggling to find jobs, Eastern Michigan University is providing business students with some of the best possible preparation - Google training.

Google Inc. has partnered with Eastern Michigan to create a curriculum based on Google’s AdWords advertising product. The university began offering a Google-based course in January 2008, and it’s grown to two introductory sections and a follow-up course. About 350 students have taken the courses.

“They hadn’t tried it at a university level and were looking for someone to partner with to try it out,” said Bud Gibson, a professor at EMU's College of Business and developer of the university’s search-marketing program.

“We said, sure, started teaching the first course a couple months later, and started producing great results for nonprofits.”

Google would not comment on the partnership.

Students from Eastern Michigan University connect with more than 50 nonprofit organizations that have been awarded AdWord grants from Google. The organizations have $10,000-a-month budgets, and students work as consultants to write search engine ads.

“I think it’s fair to say we have the most in-depth, hands-on treatment of search marketing in the nation,” Gibson said. “Some other courses at U.S. universities go into the theory of search marketing, but don’t have people working with organizations to monitor and drive them to success.”

Rob Mies, co-founder of the Organization for Bat Conservation, was among the first to begin working with Eastern Michigan University students. He said the partnership has surpassed his expectations and helped his organization, housed at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, thrive.

“We rely a lot on website sales, which makes our organization a unique organization,” Mies said. “So, I think the students and professor have enjoyed working with us, because we have a bit more of a complex goal. Some nonprofits may just want to increase donations to their websites.”

Working with the EMU students has yielded more benefits than Mies anticipated, he said.

“I think probably our initial goal in working with the EMU students was to increase sales. That is something that has happened, but I think more importantly, what we ended up learning, was structure ideas - ways the website can be best laid out, and ways the visitors find information. That’s something I guess I hadn’t expected.”

Of course, the greatest benefits go to the students, who will have Google AdWords experience on their resumes when applying for jobs.

“They’ll have an easier time even in this economy of getting interviews and getting job offers. I have people calling me about this. (Students) mention they’ve done this course, and it opens doors for them,” Gibson said.

“The big tangible benefit going forward is they’ll gain an in-depth understanding of how to get your company visible on the Web in a way that makes business sense.”