Demand for gap year schemes soars
Date added: Tuesday 6th October 2009
The following article by Lucy Tobin was published in The Guardian on 1st September 2009
The squeeze on university places has sent demand for gap year schemes soaring, as tens of thousands of extra school-leavers take unexpected time out
Despite three As and a B, Will Pitt has been unable to find a degree place to study medicine so he's decided to get some medical experience in India with Medforce Photograph: Frank Baron
When Will Pitt learned that all of his university applications to read medicine had been turned down, his first feeling was disappointment at becoming one of the estimated 130,000 students who have this year failed to find a degree place after a recession-fuelled surge in interest.
Now, after achieving three As and a B in maths, further maths, chemistry and economics in his A-levels, Will, 18, 
from Surrey, is joining the 25,000 extra students who will be taking an unexpected gap year. Last Thursday, just a week after the clearing system for allocating leftover university places started, nearly all vacancies had been filled, according to the admissions service, Ucas. Usually, clearing lasts for about a month.
So, putting his studies on hold for a year, Will is heading to India with the gapper scheme Medforce to gain medical work experience. He then plans to earn some cash as a tennis coach in the UK, before teaching himself biology AS-level to boost his chances with his second Ucas application.
"I hadn't originally wanted to do a gap year, but now I've kind of been forced to, I'm going to use it to make sure I stand out as a candidate next year," he says. "I wanted to work in India to do something different. I think it might change me quite a lot, make me less materialistic and more driven to do well at university.
"I actually feel glad now that I wasn't awarded a place when I first applied."
Every summer there are students who - for a myriad of reasons - make a last-minute decision to take time out, but this year, gap year travel firms are reporting interest soaring by up to 75%. Inquiries to the industry as a whole are up by a fifth, as students aim to ride out the recession while earning money abroad, travelling, gaining new skills or boosting exam grades, while also attacking the Ucas process with renewed vigour for 2010 university entry.
"It's a growing trend," says Marcus Watts, managing director of Gapforce and a committee chairman for the Year Out Group, a body that represents gap year providers. "We've heard from a lot of students with three or four top A-levels who have just missed out on university places because the competition is so high. I've heard a lot of heartbreaking stories and in the days since A-level results applications are already up 20%."
In keeping with the economic climate, most inquiries are for gap year schemes that include qualifications or paying jobs. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the professional services firm that offers a gap year scheme, saw interest in its internships shoot up 30% in August, with its recruitment website receiving more than 45,000 hits in that month alone.
But Sonja Stockton, head of graduate recruitment at the firm, advises that a well-organised year out can be beneficial even without a salary. "It's only natural that people are very unsure what to do at the moment, and getting employed is obviously a first choice," she says. "But so long as you keep in mind where you want to be in three years, and the skills and knowledge you will need to gain in that time, your year out can still contribute to that and keep you on track."
It is a message that this summer's impromptu gappers will have taken on board. Many are more commercially savvy than any previous year groups, having already felt the impact of the recession by missing out on a place at university. A growing number are keen to use time out to boost their employability - and to avoid joining the growing statistic of 835,000 18- to 24-year-olds currently out of work and education, one in six of that age group.
It is not just gap year numbers that are changing: trends are, too. Firms report that applicants who are opting to go travelling or participate in schemes such as wildlife conservation, rather than seeking paid work, are cutting back on their spending, often by slashing the time spent abroad.
"Unsurprisingly," says Watts, "money is a major factor this year. It's not just students finding it harder to get paid work in the UK: parents, too, are under pressure. The bank of mum and dad is drying up. Instead of fleeing for six months, students are signing up for two or three months, and working for the balance to pay for it."
The "money factor" also means that some schemes that offer to pay students during their year out are already full. Roger Salwey, managing director of gap year provider Oyster Worldwide, which offers both paid work and volunteer projects around the world, says there is a marked difference in demand for the two options.
"In the last week I have noticed a 20% increase in phone calls and email inquiries about our paid work schemes - for example, working on farms in Australia or in Canadian ski resorts - but no change in those wanting to do voluntary work," he says.
The surge in demand means that Oyster has already filled its paid placements in Canada until February next year, and Australian positions until November.
Similarly, The Year in Industry, which organises job placements - mainly in engineering, science, IT, business and logistics - for both school-leavers and undergraduates, has seen interest in its schemes rise by 52% in the period since A-level results were published, compared with the same time last year. The group offers about 600 placements a year, paying a salary of between £10,000 and £14,000, with a quarter of the firms involved also going on to sponsor participants throughout their time at university. Most of the places have already been allocated, but about 60 remain.
Fighting for a last-minute place on a gap year scheme might sound a miserable prospect for those students who have spent the past few weeks worrying about A-levels and then battling - unsuccessfully - for a university place through clearing, but a range of opportunities is still available. In fact, the "forced" gap year can have lots of extra benefits. A well-planned year out can not only be a lot of fun, but can feed into future job applications, stresses Richard Oliver, chief executive of the Year Out Group.
"One really good thing about the recession-forced gap year is that students will realise the importance of doing something structured and take a rather more serious approach than 'sand and sangria'," he says. "A gap year should be seen as time out, but not time off."
Last minute gap
Before I became a student four years ago, I took an impromptu gap year after failing to get a place at my top-choice university. I ended up not only discovering what I wanted to do in life - a chance job led to my interest in a career in journalism - but all sorts of other skills such as what tax meant and how to feign indifference to spiders (a fertile family of them moved into my office drawers): useful additions to any CV, I think you'll agree.
Demand for gap year spaces may be soaring, but there are still plenty of options out there. So if you're worried about what to do with the university-shaped void in your life for the next year, do some research and consider taking the plunge to join the growing gang of impromptu gappers.
- If you're desperate to do international volunteering, but have an utterly empty wallet, look into Platform2, a 10-week trip funded by the government's Department for International Development. It offers free flights, accommodation, food and living expenses for participants to take part in projects such as school-building in Nepal, working on a women's equality project in India and helping children in South Africa. Apply by 28 September to depart in the first week of January 2010.
www.myplatform2.com - Or try Lattitude, which is offering new, short-term projects lasting between four and eight weeks in Ghana, for all ages. It has a range of bursary schemes and there are still four fully funded places available, specifically targeted at those who have achieved high grades at A-level but have still not been accepted on to their chosen university course, or to applicants from west Berkshire, London or the West Midlands. The deadline is 30 September.
www.lattitude.org.uk - Another option still available is The Year in Industry, which organises job placements in the UK. There are still alimited number of places available.
www.yini.org.uk - Think about going back to school. If you scooped a full hand of top marks but missed out on university because of the sheer volume of demand for your top-choice course, then skip this option. But if you were disappointed by your results, you could use some of your gap year time to resit a module or more, or even take an entirely new subject. If you're only taking a few exams, you'll still be able to pack a lot of other options into your year out, and could find yourself in a far stronger academic position come the next round of university applications.
- Love working with children and want to go away? Think about working as a leader on Camp America, which runs children's camps all around the world. Applications for summer 2010 have only just opened.
www.campamerica.co.uk - If you want to use the time to learn a new skill or boost an old interest, search online - there are thousands of courses out there. A popular gap year option with places still available is Art History Abroad, a six-week course involving travel through Venice, Verona, Florence, Siena, Rome and Naples while learning about art. Scholarship places are also on offer.
www.arthistoryabroad.com - Follow in Will Pitt's (see main story) footsteps and sign up for a volunteer medical placement overseas, in countries including India, Belize, Fiji and South Africa. You don't need any medical qualifications and some placements are paid.
www.medforce.info - If you need to earn money but want to escape the UK, think about travelling abroad to find work. Australia - the most popular gap year destination - has been less affected by the recession than the UK. It offers a two-year working holiday visa to UK residents under the age of 31.
www.visabureau.com/australia/working-holiday-visa.aspx - If you've always had a dream business idea in mind, but never had the time to put it into action, use your year out to make the dream reality. Lots of advice and links to local networks of young entrepreneurs at
www.makeyourmark.org.uk
