Government boost puts thousands more students into holiday jobs

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

A boost to student recruitment services has spurred a boom in student employment this summer.

Thousands more students than last year have been busily at work these holidays filling job vacancies throughout the country.

About 26,700 students have found jobs through Student Job Search, up 14 per cent on the same period last year, when about 23,500 found work.

Increased Government cash and a new student work scheme called Snap! - aimed at getting students into summer work linked to their study areas - have been credited with the jump in student employment.

"The numbers are so much better than last year," said Andrew Campbell, deputy chairman of Student Job Search.

"There will still be students who can't find work, but the ones who are, are getting longer-term work in areas they're interested in."

A survey last year found that more than a third of students preferred to find skilled work relevant to their course of study.

Last year, the Government set up Snap! as a pilot scheme in an effort to better match students' needs and to give employers the chance to get affordable temporary help.

It has been enrolling students, mostly those nearing the end of their degrees, for jobs specifically in their fields of study, such as accounting, information technology, marketing and administrative work.

Student Job Search, which has received an extra $3 million from the Government to spend over the next four years, also continued to find one-off jobs for students in areas such as gardening and labouring.

Student Job Search said 3495 students had found jobs with at least 30 hours of work each week for more than four weeks.

About 30,000 students are expected to have found work by the end of the summer break next month.

Pay rates vary from region to region, but in Auckland students are paid anything from $11 to $15 an hour for labouring work and $7 to $8 for clerical work.

In Hamilton students are earning from $10 to $12 an hour for home help and $15 to $20 for tutorial work.

Victoria University history student Rob McEwan found a job at Tranz Rail through the service, working as a vehicle marshal for the Lynx ferry.

The 19-year-old said he would not have been able to survive the summer without his job, which pays $11.50 an hour for 28 hours a week.

"I had a really good time because there was a neat group of people working there - a few of us from [Student Job Search] and the regular crew of happy-go-lucky people."

Tertiary Education Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday that the service had achieved excellent results for students.

But Mr Campbell urged the Government to reintroduce a welfare benefit, particularly for students in remote areas who could not find work.