Organisers who launched the programme yesterday said that it provided a more rewarding experience than simply travelling the world with a backpack. It combines a round-the-world airline ticket with paid or voluntary work at up to four three-month placements in different countries.
Options range from improving language skills at a top European university to helping children with HIV in South Africa. Students choose between two and four locations on schemes costing between £3,200 and £5,295.
The project was announced yesterday by Sir Cyril Taylor, who advises Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, as chairman of the Specialist Schools Trust. Sir Cyril is also chairman of the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS), which has set up the gap scheme as an extension of its Camp America programme.
He described modern globetrotting students as being in the same British tradition as the wealthy aristocrats and bohemian artists who undertook the 19th-century Grand Tour of Europe. Inevitably, however, there is a practical edge to today's travel.
"We have done some research about the value of this experience and we are being told by employers that they are increasingly looking for more than just the university degree," Sir Cyril said. "They want people who have done worthwhile things and the voluntary part of this programme is very appealing to them. We suspect that the value to somebody's CV of an experience of this sort could be extremely worthwhile and lead to their earning more money."
The programme, which starts in September, aims to have about 1,000 participants within two years. Marcia Schneider, the executive vice-president of AIFS, said it would be offering means-tested scholarships to some students to counter accusations that it would become a travel club monopolised by rich kids. Students would also have the opportunity to earn money during placements in Australia, New Zealand and the US to help with the cost.
As well as placements on American summer camps, options include volunteering on an environmental protection project in Brazil, helping street children in India and learning the skills of a "jackeroo" cowboy in Australia.
Those choosing South Africa will be enrolled as students at Stellenbosch University, where they will attend classes on politics and cultural change in the post-apartheid era. They will also work in Kayamandi, an impoverished black township of 20,000 people, in the local high school teaching English, maths, art or sport or helping a community to build homes in place of the squatter shacks in which many are forced to live.
Volunteers will also have the opportunity to work at Cotlands Hospice with children orphaned by Aids.
Robert Kotze, director of the international office at Stellenbosch, said: "It's always challenging moving between developed and underdeveloped and between receiving and giving. But I firmly believe that these three months will be life-changing experiences for the students."
The gap-year programme has won support from head teachers. Seven are members of an advisory board, including Elizabeth Diggory, High Mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in West London, and Monica Curtis, head of Chelmsford County High School for Girls, Essex.
Mrs Curtis said: "A lot of my girls are already doing expeditions and gap-year activities that cost something like £3,000 for a month so it will be appealing. When you go for a job these days, people look at your degree and the three A grades at A level, then ask, 'What else have you done'' This will certainly give them that bit extra."
Miss Diggory said: "Students regard a gap year as almost a rite of passage now and many parents will be willing to put something into this because they know their young are going to go and this offers them a safety aspect."
Take part in a debate...
Is taking a gap year worthwhile'
Send your e-mails to [email protected]
