18 gairrhydd OCTOBER.22.2007
FEATURES
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The Grand Gap Year E Touring the Globe... and saving the world? With more young people than ever opting to have a gap year before university, features editor Jenny Williams explores the rise of this rite of passage, and examines the experiences of other Cardiff students on the gap trail
t seems everyone’s doing it. Even royalty. Before Prince William headed to St. Andrews he spent a year travelling round Africa doing good and saving the world; just like the next 200,000 university-destined youths. Volunteer projects range from digging wells to visiting poor communities from Borneo to Timbuktu. Recently, there has been a shift in popularity from backpacking to volunteering. With the Gap Year industry booming, rifts have emerged between charity organisations and travel companies selling exotic holidays with a voluntary-based façade. Young people clearly want to make a difference but the question remains: how much good is the gap year voluntary work doing?
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The history of the gap year
The ‘gap year’ can be considered as a modern equivalent of the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour consisted of European destinations, lasting from several months to several years, emerging from about 1660. After the arrival of the mass
Gap facts: Up to 200,000 Britons take a gap year every year, 130,000 of them are school-leavers. The British gap year travel market comprises approximately 1% of all UK outbound trips and around 10% of outbound travel expenditure. The average gap year traveller spends around £4,800 Gapyear.com estimates that 230,000 18- to 24-year-olds set off on a big trip each year, plus 90,000 career gappers aged 25 to 35, and 220,000 55- to 65-year-old.
There are risks involved, but such accidents could happen anywhere - including Britain
rail transit in the 1820s, the Grand Tour became hugely popular with young British upper-class men who used travelling as an educational rite of passage; a chance to be exposed to cultural artefacts of antiquity as well being involved in the fashionable Renaissance European continent. Travel became a mandatory development and expansion of knowledge for the wealthy. The eighteenth-century sentiment placed great importance upon reporting experiences as a social obligation. In the 1960s, hippies took ‘gap years’ to trek to Greece but it was not until the 1990s that the ‘gap year’ became prevalent. The gap year in Britain partly resulted from the academic calender of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Until recently, Oxbridge students were required to sit their entrance examinations in the Autumn following their ‘A’ level results. This left a period of nine months before students started their courses at university whereby they were encouraged to go travelling and volunteer abroad. This could explain why the ‘year out’ has never quite shed its posh image. It seems that royalty are leading the continuation of the Grand Tour and setting the example for educational travelling. For example, the charity youth project, Raleigh International, was set up by Prince Charles and Colonel John Blashford-Snell and saw Prince William helping schoolchildren in Chile. Prince Harry also took a gap year working in an orphanage in Lesotho. It is worth noting that almost fifty percent of all private-school pupils take gap years, compared with about twenty percent from state schools. Cardiff Journalism student, Jessie Gregson believes that “Many students want to travel and to see and experience new things before committing to another three years of education or a full time job.” A recent trend has also seen the gap year becoming increasingly popular as a career gap for those over twenty-five, including an accerlation in the market for retirees. Gapyear.com estimates that 230,000 18- to 24-year-olds set off on a big trip each year, plus 90,000 career gappers aged 25 to 35, and 220,000, 55- to 65year-olds. It would seem that the gap year’s popularity across all generations highlights its use as either a delay from the world of work or an escape from the demands of working life.
The rise of gap year fears A popular student travel agency
found that of the 14,000 young people who have asked the company for gap year advice this year, only one in five would commit to taking a trip. This suggests a decline in the gap year trend but perhaps is more reflective of media reports concerning deaths of gap year students, emphasising the dangers of travelling and reinforcing fears within younger generations. The potential dangers of travelling across the world have been recently reinforced following the death of Cardiff University English Literature graduate, Bethan Jones, who died in Thailand only three days into her round-theworld trip with her boyfriend. The dangers are further highlighted by deaths such as that of Toby Eaton-Baudains, who was killed last April in a car crash in Borneo when working with the charity Raleigh International. Jessie Gregson comments that “I was worried about the dangers and the cost of travelling. I went through an organisation, CCUSA, which specialises in the Camp America scheme, which greatly reduced any worries about personal safety. I felt safe knowing they were only a phone call away. I also travelled in a group rather than on my own which again increases safety and reduces cost.” However, it seems that travelling with an organisation is no guarantee of safety. The deaths of Becca Owen and Chloe Taylor who died in a car accident while on a year out in Mexico in 2004, travelling with the British gap year company, Teaching & Projects Abroad. Third-year English Literature student, Laura Pyke, comments that ‘there are risks you take when you go travelling but these accidents could easily happen in Britain.’ Further than fears for personal safety, it seems that students are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of travelling and the financial consequences of student debt. Laura continues, “I decided not to have a gap year as it was financially out of my league.”
The modern gap year It is inevitable that the number of young people opting for a gap year will increase as more students are going to university every year. However, the industry has recently witnessed a shift from the simple round-the-world backpacking trip to volunteer
projects. More ‘gappers’ are opting for a volunteering based overseas gap years with the aim o improvofng the lives of those less fortunate. Whilst many organisations provide worthwhile overseas projects, it is clear that volunteer work is simply placed as an option alongside exotic and adventure holidays and is seen by some as a chance to gain CV brownie points.