WESTERN BUREAU – Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson will on Wednesday officially launch a multi-million dollar work/study programme that is expected to benefit more than 100 students from schools in St James and Trelawny.

The initiative is being spearheaded by East Central St James Member of Parliament Ed Bartlett and will benefit students from schools including:

. Cornwall College and Muschett High;

. the Maldon and Herbert Morrison high schools;

. the Anchovy and William Knibb high schools;

. the Mount Alvernia and Montego Bay high schools; and

. the St James High School.

According to Bartlett, his decision to implement the programme was based on calls from parents for social and financial assistance for their children.

Under the programme – which will be supervised by the guidance counsellors at the respective schools – students will be required to work two hours per day of each week and will receive a stipend of $1,000 weekly.

Participating students, Bartlett said, will be employed to the programme, on a “needs basis” for one year, at various establishments in and around Montego Bay.

“This programme provides two critical values: it is going to give the students a sense of work ethic and it is going to give them a sense of the value of money because they are going to be rewarded for hard work,” the MP explained.

The project, which is expected to cost in excess of $4 million during its first year, will be reviewed annually and later expanded to include students from the Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College and the Montego Bay Community College in St James.

Funding for the programme is being provided by the Montego Bay business community and the United States-based National Association of Real Estate Brokers.