Student leader calls for return of job scheme

THOUSANDS of students are struggling to return to college every autumn because of the Government’s refusal to reintroduce the Summer Jobs Scheme it scrapped four years ago, it was claimed yesterday.

The scheme attracted up to 15,000 participants yearly in the mid-1990s, offering students a basic wage for six weeks of work usually with community, voluntary or sporting bodies.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs decided, in 2003, to end the scheme.