Those who have experienced the GAP year travel are full of praise for its influence on broadening their experience. Janet Stafford reports
Jenna Fisher, the new face of Prada is planning to take a gap year. The 16-year-old Lancashire schoolgirl is studying for five A-levels, but as her modelling career takes off, she has found she loves travel and wants to take a gap year to model and travel after A-levels.
Author and sometime DJ, Patrick Neate was recently awarded the Whitbread prize for fiction for his second novel, Twelve Bar Blues. During a year out before college, Neate taught in a bush school in Zimbabwe. That experience provided partial inspiration for colourful characters and places in both his novels.
You may never be a top catwalk model or a prize-winning novelist, but you too can take a year out, defer entry to third level and spend that time doing something that will change your life.
Last November, President Mary McAleese met nine students who had participated in GAP Activity Projects (GAP). The meeting was a springboard to officially launch the work of GAP in Ireland. Last year's pilot programme saw 11 students, who had opted for a year out before college, taking part in projects in Malaysia, South Africa, Vietnam and the US, to name a few. Again this year, 11 students (so far) are taking a year out with GAP - and it isn't too late for students who are considering deferring entry to college to consider joining the adventure.
Sir Huw Pike, director of GAP Activity Projects, is committed to the concept of a structured year out. "We try to offer something distinctive. We want to involve participants in a serious job of work, be it in a school, on a conservation project or whatever. This is not a holiday," he warns. "There are huge benefits to be derived from living and working as part of a community, both to them and you, which you would never otherwise experience."
Gap years have been popular in Britain for many years. Universities admissions officers and employers appreciate the extra dimension a gap experience gives to a person. There are 23 approved organisations under the umbrella of the Year Out Group supported by the Department of Education and Employment. GAP Activity Projects is a non-profit organisation, which offers work placements and support in varied jobs in 33 countries, from Argentina to Zambia. They are now establishing a firm base in Ireland.
"This is available to everyone. There are bursaries available for people who think they need some assistance," says Pike. You have to pay a fee (from stg£725) to GAP, which organises work, visas, relevant permits and backup support. The fund-raising you do beforehand can be part of the GAP experience.
Edward Dobbs is studying economics and geography in Trinity College, but last year he was working in a pub in Wicklow and saving money before heading off to work in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam for five months.
"When I first arrived I was shocked by the heat, the dirt and the poverty. I didn't know the language, but an induction course helped us figure out where everything was," he says. The group of eight who arrived were split into pairs and sent off on different projects. Dobbs taught English to 18- and 19-year-old students. "I shared a room on the school campus and earned about two dollars a day, which was enough to live on. I also did some teaching in a private school so that I earned money for travelling afterwards," he says.
"I was so glad I went with GAP because I stayed in one place, I had work visas, permits and accommodation organised for me. That let me get to know the local Vietnamese people very well. I learnt some of the language and still e-mail friends there. Afterwards, I travelled to Laos, Thailand and Cambodia."
Dobbs says the experience changed him. "The most important lesson I learned was to be open-minded and to realise that other people and cultures think differently. Some of the people I met will be friends for life.
"Some people in college hadn't heard of a year out, but it helped prepare me for college. I was much more relaxed and ready to work well because I learnt a lot and grew up a bit."
Alison de Vere Hunt studies PR and advertising in Cork College of Commerce. Prior to that she worked in her mum's guesthouse and in a bar earning money to spend eight months teaching in Victoria Girls High School in Grahamstown, South Africa. "I'd heard about GAP from school and friends who had gone. I absolutely loved it. I was there for eight months until last March and then travelled a bit to Capetown."
De Vere Hunt was paired with Mancunian Ainsley Chadwick and they are now firm friends. "One thing I did early on didn't impress the school too much - we were driving a buckie (a pick-up truck) and hadn't realised we were supposed to fill the back with sand to stabilise it. We went off the road and wrote it off. Neither of us got hurt luckily."
De Vere Hunt says she would recommend GAP to anyone because of the back-up security it gives you. "I'd have been scared to just go off on my own and this way I learnt so much, plus my parents were really reassured about being with a good organisation. This is a terrific opportunity to grab hold of when you're 18. You'll maybe never have the same chance again if you have to start working when you leave college. It gives you tremendous confidence and greatly enhances the university experience," says Pike.
For further information see www.gap.org.uk; www.yearoutgroup.org or contact Angela Crean at The British Council on (01) 676 4088 or e-mail Angela.Crean@ie.britishcouncil.org
