CHAPTER TEN OVERSEAS YOUTH EXPEDITIONS Pete Allison, Tim Stott, Johannes Felter and Simon Beames INTRODUCTION Travel and overseas experiences, particularly those involving some form of outdoor education, are regarded by many young people, parents, university admissions departments and employers as beneficial to a young person’s development. Expeditions have been used in the UK as an educational tool since 1932, when the Public Schools Exploring Society ran its first expedition to Finland. While gap years and expeditions are slightly different (as the former often incorporate the latter, but not vice versa), no specific statistics are available on the number of people engaged in expeditions from the UK each year. Jones (2004), however, estimated that 250,000–350,000 Britons between sixteen and twenty-five years of age were taking a gap year annually. Four years later, Rowe (2008: 47) reported that ‘the gap year market is valued at £2.2 billion in the UK and globally at £5 billion. It’s one of the fastest growing travel sectors of the 21st century, and the prediction is for the global gap year market to grow to £11 billion by 2010.’ Expedition experiences happen at crucial times in life (the teen years), when metaphysical (rather than empirical) questions dominate. In other words, people are primarily interested in thinking about who they are, what they want to do with their lives, what is important to them and how they interact with society in different ways. The development of British Standard 8848 (specification for the provision of visits, field- work, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the UK) in concert with the Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) quality badge scheme (underpinned by the Expedition Providers Association) are further indications that significant numbers of people are travelling overseas on expeditions and gap years. At the time of writing, the UK government was considering proposals for a National Citizen Service (NCS), a non-military national service comprising a two-month summer programme for sixteen-year-olds and including both residential and at-home components. It would be delivered by independent charities, social enterprises and private businesses. Whether there will be a role for overseas residential experience, perhaps through expeditions, in this scheme remains to be seen. 187 Overseas youth expeditions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 T&F PROOFS. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION. Adventure-01-p.qxd 26/1/11 09:27 Page 187