Thirty thousand students are about to flood into the New Zealand workplace. With the Christmas break coming up, thousands are expected to try to score some extra cash to carry on partying during their time away from college.

Many of the students are believed to have skills which are needed in offices and factories up and down the country. Employment figures out last week showed there was an increased skill and labour shortage.

There are fears some unscrupulous bosses could try to take advantage of the cheap 'student' labour. But the Student Job Search organisation says many of the wannabe workers are not going to be ripped off. Spokesman Andrew Kirton thinks many of them are too wise to be conned, though some may not be. By and large he says,most of them will revitalise the atmosphere in offices and some may even get full time jobs after employers see what they are capable of