Posted 19 Mar 2009

People who have been made redundant are using it as an opportunity to go on a gap year, it has been claimed.

Tom Griffiths of Gapyear.com told the Daily Mail that the number of people looking for volunteering work abroad is increasing.

And he said that groups who organise such gap year trips are "crying out" for qualified workers.

"Older people are more likely to volunteer than younger people, which helps them gain a new perspective on life and have a more positive frame of mind when they return to the UK," he told the paper.

Furthermore, Mr Griffiths added that a redundancy payout of £3,000 to £5,000 can help fund gap year travels.

These comments follow figures from the Office for National Statistics that showed unemployment rose to 2.03 million in the three months until January 2009 – an increase of 421,000 compared to the previous year.

Category: General Travel, Teaching and Learning