Travelling to far-flung destinations for a few months’ volunteering work in an exotic setting is now a rite of passage for many young people, not least because of the CV brownie points afforded by a gap year. With the cost of degrees rising and with it the pressure to make sure you walk into your ideal job once you graduate, more and more students are turning to foreign adventures to help get themselves noticed. And they are spending more and more in the process.

Costing on average between £1,500 and £3,500, a foreign placement seems like an obvious, if expensive, way to distinguish yourself. Someone else organizes a placement, meets you at the airport and looks after you should anything go wrong. The latest study from market researchers Mintel indicates that paying an organization to set up a placement abroad is the fastest growing gap year activity among the 230,000 young people who take gap years annually.

Attracted by the prospect of having everything sorted out for her, medical student Rachael Tan, 20, paid over £2,000 for a two-month placement in India with Teaching and Projects Abroad (TPA) last summer. Two weeks into her placement she found herself in a situation she had never foreseen: “The doctor took me and another volunteer out one evening. I had a couple of drinks. I then said I didn’t want any more and started to feel really uncomfortable. The doctor’s friend kept trying to put his hand down my top. I started crying and shouting at them.

“They took us to a shack on a piece of land the doctor owned. I went outside to have a cigarette. I could hear the doctor and the other volunteer having sex. It was horrible.”

A representative from TPA arrived the next day to get the volunteers to fill in questionnaires about their placements. Rachael says, “The rep read it and asked me to fill in another one saying everything was fine. He promised to sort it out but said that a bad questionnaire would mean a lot of paper work.”

Rachael agreed to redo her questionnaire and was moved the following day. TPA no longer places students with that hospital. Director General, Peter Slowe, says: “We monitor things during internships and have very regular visits.” He explained that placements are sourced by local staff and urged volunteers to let representatives know if they have any problems. “Just tell us. Sometimes it is about a little thing that can easily be put right.”

In a statement the company said that it vetted all organisations and host families, and undertook ongoing checks during a volunteer’s placement. Such checks, it said, were carried out during Rachael’s placement and upon being told she was uncomfortable, a TPA representative drove the next day to pick her up and move her.

TPA added that it issued volunteers with written advice about how to act with host families and staff at their placements. “While these include social advice that any responsible person would give to anyone travelling abroad in an unfamiliar culture (including advice on sexual conduct), we cannot restrict individuals from conducting themselves how they choose in such social circumstances.”

Rachael is unsure whether the placement has furthered her career: “I’m not sure whether I learnt much on a medical basis. Most of the time I was sitting in consultations and they would be talking Tamil so I didn’t understand. One doctor I shadowed was really good and set aside time to talk to me and teach me. It is very dependent on where you are placed.”

She is not alone. Research released by the Training and Development Agency for Schools suggests that a quarter of graduates worry about falling behind their peers and becoming less employable after taking a gap year. Susan Griffith, author of Taking a Gap Year, says young people shouldn’t assume that the placement will be what they envisage. “It’s very hit and miss. It is hard to know ahead of time what it is going to be like. So much depends on how good the local reps are.”

Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, says that the only way to minimize the risk of being disappointed is to plan carefully. “Ask the right questions. Can I speak to someone who has done the placement? Where does the money go? Where is the nearest English speaking rep?”

Gap year placement providers are not governed by any regulatory body, like ABTA which covers travel agents. Year Out Group, a non-profit organization, does operate a code of practice for its 39 member companies but the guidelines are only informational. Tom Griffiths thinks more regulation is needed. “Some of these firms are taking a lot of money. They are really performing the role of travel agents.”

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