No Luck with the Gov

Well I wrote to my MP to see if there were any government run initiatives that could support young people doing voluntary work in the current climate. The good news is my MP wrote back, the bad news is she wasn't able to do anything :( It looks like the deal is just with Raleigh International which is pretty good for them as it'll mean more people will be signing up. I'm still not sure how much a Raleigh expedition will help someone get a job and to what extent it's just a gap year. I'd love to hear from anyone whose been on a Raleigh Expeditions to see if they felt it helped them develop vocational skills.

Ahead of the Curve?

One of the reason's I'm doing voluntary work overseas is because at the moment it is difficult to actually find a paid work relevant to my long term goals. At the time of writing the UK is supposedly in the deepest recession since the 1930's and, while I think this is probably not quite that bad, it is very difficult to find work for graduates at the moment.

Today I came across this article on the BBC today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8179565.stm The article is about the government encoraging graduates to do overseas work as a way of gainng job experience. They're going to be giving grants for people to work on projects with Raligh International, the organisation the Prince William went with during his gap year.

I'm in two minds about this story. On one hand it's good that I must be on the right track if the governments recommending gap years would be a good way for graduates to get experience, but on the other hand I do have some reservations about the merits of this ideal. As good as it is to go overseas and build school I don't think it necessarily gives graduate any more then the generic abilities of working as a team, being more independent and improving their people skills.

My project is very different in that I'm aiming to use specific work skills which are much more transferable to a job. Things like report writing, working on a website and conducting publicity and fundraising is much more effective for job skills then these gap year programmes. I'm resolved that my work won't just be "helping out" but doing something practical in a work based environment.

I hope that whatever the government decides to do will be similar is setting up effective vocational placements and not just end up contrabuting towards young people 'scarbon footprints. Still, maybe I should write to my local MP on the matter, might be worth seeing if I can get any funds from the government myself.