Time for something different
First we hear from:
Susannah Hecht who is the editor of The Gap-Year Guidebook 2004/5, published by Peridot Press (published annually, see www.gap-year.com for further details of the current edition).
Taking a gap-year or a year out is becoming more
and more popular; every year, tens of thousands of school leavers are
calling time out and going out into the world before returning to
complete their education or start their careers. Traditionally taken
after A levels, gap-years provide a welcome and
deserved rest from the slog of study and the anxiety of exams, exam
results and applying for university places.
Importantly, universities and employers are increasingly viewing gap-years
as a vital step in personal development - a chance for young people to
gain experience of the wider world before beginning university. A
‘good’ gap-year offers the chance to prove yourself
and to stretch personal boundaries. By discovering new people, places
and circumstances it is an opportunity to learn self-reliance, to stand
on your own two feet, to make decisions and to learn to deal with
adults as an adult. Common sense may not be something that can be
learned - but it can be discovered on a gap-year.
There are no rules as to what constitutes a gap-year
– it can include everything from teaching in a remote village in Africa
to studying drama in New York. No-one should have the idea that taking
a gap-year is an easy option: sitting around watching day-time TV and going to the pub for 12 months does not count as a gap-year and would quickly become very boring! To make the most of the opportunity, the gap-year
must be exciting, fun and challenging. This may mean travelling to
Thailand, helping with conservation work in Scotland or learning to
snowboard. With a whole year to fill it might even mean all three.
Gap-year options include voluntary work around the
world, teaching, learning languages, gaining qualifications (in sport
instructing, TEFL, business skills…), au pairing, internships, working
as a sports instructor, acquiring or improving
art/photography/drama/dance skills and, of course, travelling. It is
this diversity that makes gap-years so appealing: there is, quite
literally, a gap-year for everyone – for the adventurous, the ambitious, the sporty and the studious.
The key to a successful gap-year is preparation. That doesn’t mean a gap-year
can’t be spontaneous – but it would be a real disappointment to get to
the border of Nepal and not have the right visa, or to have to turn
down the job of a lifetime in Australia through failure to secure a
work permit before leaving the UK!
With so much on offer and with so many sixth-formers deciding to take a gap-year, many schools are opting to help their students prepare by offering advice, providing research resources (books, websites etc) and organising talks by experts.
Now we hear from:
Roger Potter, Director of Worldwide Volunteering for Young People
Volunteering has never been more in the public eye. A proliferation
of magazines is devoted exclusively to the subject whilst others give
more and more space to volunteering. Gap-year
publications and newspaper features offer more and more advice to
would-be volunteers and their parents. For its part, the Government has
launched a number of new initiatives that directly or indirectly
involve volunteering – Millennium Volunteers, Community Action,
Citizenship and the recent Young Volunteer Challenge pilot scheme
spring to mind.
Widening appeal
With these
developments, the nature of volunteering is changing - its altered
shape being moulded in part by this ongoing debate and in part by
changing social conditions. There is at times a somewhat sneering
dismissal of volunteering as an activity indulged in by ‘flowery ladies
in middle-aged hats’. The contribution of such volunteers should not be
lightly dismissed – in countless ways they perform a huge amount of
unsung and crucial work. At the same time, however, the appeal of
volunteering is widening. More than ever volunteering is an option for
people of every age, background, aspiration and circumstance.
The options open to young people in particular have never been so
extensive or so exciting. At school, students are encouraged into
volunteering not only by enthusiastic teachers but also through
personal and social education, community action programmes and
citizenship lessons. As activity outside the classroom in both
term-time and holidays becomes more elaborate and exciting it is
increasingly possible to combine a geography field trip, for instance,
or an international sports tour with a volunteering experience.
A natural extension of all this is that increasing numbers of students are electing to take a gap-year
between school and university or a job – and many are choosing to
volunteer for at least a part of their year out. At university, the
picture is the same with opportunities burgeoning for vacation or
post-graduation volunteering.
A core commitment
If volunteering is to have the maximum
impact, though, the genuine wish to help others less well off than
themselves must be at the core of volunteers’ commitment. A recent
research paper for a government volunteering initiative alarmingly
listed ‘to help others’ last of a list of seven reasons for
volunteering! There is a danger that those in government and corporate
circles who promote volunteering may do so in order to advance their
own social, economic or commercial agendas.
It can be a difficult balance to strike. The kindness of helping an
old lady across the road may bring a justifiable sense of personal
satisfaction. The heart of the matter is that the greatest potential of
volunteering is achieved when it is undertaken to the greatest possible
extent for its own sake. The overarching value of volunteering per se
is lost when it is used as the means of delivering alternative agendas.
In a way that is out of step with the contemporary preoccupation (at
times obsession) with box-ticking, target-achievement and quantitative
evaluation, the benefits of volunteering are intangible and
qualitative. Good is not a measurable concept!
WorldWide Volunteering
It was with much of this in mind
that WorldWide Volunteering for Young People was founded in 1994. This
UK registered charity grew out of the conviction that huge numbers of
potential volunteers were failing to find outlets for their altruism
through sheer lack of information. Ten years later the vast range of
opportunities open to young people throughout the UK and overseas has
become apparent.
WorldWide Volunteering can now lead potential volunteers to detailed
and instant information about over 1000 organisations worldwide with
more than 350,000 annual placements. Projects last anything from one
week to a year or more, are located in 214 countries, and range from
those that cost nothing and even include a weekly allowance to those
for which volunteers raise substantial funds. The programme offers a
huge menu of volunteering opportunities from which there is something
for everyone. It is used by organisations across the social spectrum –
from young offenders institutions and inner city ethnic minority youth
clubs to leading maintained and independent schools and Oxbridge Colleges.
The aim of the programme is to assist anyone whatever his or her
background, who wishes to help others. Every volunteer has a different
set of requirements and challenges. A week on a conservation project in
the neighbouring county may be every bit as valuable for one volunteer
as teaching in a Nepalese village for six months may be for another. It
all depends on your starting point. The important thing is that as many
potential volunteers as possible should have access to reliable
information about volunteer projects that exactly match their needs. It
is this that WorldWide Volunteering sets out to achieve.
The value of volunteering
Volunteering brings many
benefits to the volunteer in terms of personal development, broadening
of horizons and sheer experience of the world. Evidence of the
initiative and commitment inherent in volunteering undoubtedly enhances
university applications. Details of prior or carefully planned future
volunteering activity shine out of the personal statement (section 10)
of a UCAS form. It can act as a tiebreaker between otherwise apparently
equally applications. Tutors for Admissions testify to the value of
volunteering and are convinced that volunteering as part of a
well-structured year out reduces subsequent university drop out rates.
A similar story is true at the higher level: volunteering can be
imbedded in fieldwork or academic research and employers increasingly
look for evidence of such activity from job applicants. Undergraduates
and new graduates increasingly contact WorldWide Volunteering directly
for volunteering information. Such approaches may lead to vacation
placements or volunteering as a stepping-stone from Higher Education
into full-time employment. Some naturally will hesitate to take such a
step in a world of increasing student debt and uncertainty over
employment. On the other hand, when jobs are difficult to find a
substantial period of significant volunteering can enhance a CV in ways
that lead to longer-term reward.
Potential pitfalls
Inevitably there are potential
pitfalls. It is crucial that careful research is done before accepting
a placement, particularly in some far-flung corner of the world. There
is no regulatory body for volunteer organisations so it has very much
to be a case of caveat emptor. The developing world can be a dangerous
place but this is no more so for volunteers than for other travellers –
indeed it may be less so if a well-structured placement is found.
Asking to be put into contact with previous volunteers is always a wise
move.
Cost can be a serious consideration and this will inevitably become
a more significant consideration with the imminent arrival of top-up
fees at university. Some may fear that a year away may diminish the
appetite for further study but most will accept that this risk is more
than outweighed by the benefits of volunteering. Moreover, it is
perfectly possible for those not taking a conventional gap-year
to undertake valuable volunteering activity in the three months between
leaving school and starting university later in the year.
The goodwill that volunteering generates is ever more welcome in
today’s so-called ‘global village’. The opportunities to become
involved have never been greater or more readily accessible.
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