COVID grounds students’ work and travel programmes
The Students' Work and Travel Productions Limited (SWAT) says that it has suffered a great deal this season because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Following the closure of US borders, the hopes of some 8,000 students were crushed, which, in turn, affected the company.
The pandemic has put SWAT in a position where students are now being offered the chance to defer payments made in preparation for work and travel for this summer. This is deemed to be in the best interest of the students, and so far, over 80 per cent of the students have opted to use their payments for the 2021 registration period.
"Over 80 per cent of our students have opted to defer to the next season, and those students weren't charged any cancellation fee whatsoever. We, as a company, think that, that is in the best interest of the students so they don't lose money unnecessarily," Mark Foster, chief executive officer of SWAT, told THE STAR.
This response comes after a story was published in THE WEEKEND STAR recently where a student claimed that all students were required to pay the stipulated US$400 cancellation fee.
However, Foster says that students were given the option to avoid that charge.
Overwhelming Response
"We negotiated with the department that since they (students) paid for the programme already, we cannot take US$400 from them and then ask them to pay another US$200 next year. ... We decided to suffer the loss of millions because of that and not make the students suffer, and we got an overwhelming response. Most of the students capitalised on it," he said.
"I would have loved if all the students deferred, but in reality, I don't think all of them can because some of them are final-year students. They can't do the programme next year, so they just have to cancel because this was their last chance."
While Foster didn't disclose a specific number for SWAT, he says that up to 8,000 students from Jamaica usually enrol in the work and travel programme overseas annually.
"We send the largest amount of students. Out of that number, only about 10 per cent already had their visas, so most of the students are staying home," he said, noting that the United States government told its embassy to stop conducting interviews for visas.
As a result, he says that no student who registered through SWAT would be travelling this summer.
"The impact is sadly affecting the agencies because the agencies still have to be covering the expenses that they had invested from September last year to March, when COVID came out. It is really sad that not everybody can see eye-to-eye with the agencies that we have to charge something," Foster said.