University students in the UK rack up an average of more than £12,000 ($24,500) in student debt by the time they graduate, leaving them with a significant financial burden to cope with as they begin their professional careers. [via Springwise]

Do Good 4 Debt was recently founded by one such graduate with a two-pronged purpose: to help relieve some of that debt, and to give companies more control over their charitable contributions.

The premise is simple: debt-burdened students are matched with companies interested in sponsoring them to do charity work. They then choose from among a few different participating charities to work for over a period of up to 6 months following graduation. At the completion of each set milestone during the assignment, the student’s corporate sponsor pays off a chunk of the outstanding debt.