(Man aged about 30): My guest today on The Morning Show is Jennifer Spright who is here to talk about gap years and a few problems that people have had while doing them. Welcome, Jenny.

(Woman aged about 23): Sorry, but I prefer to be called Jennifer. Only my family call me Jenny.

Man: Sorry, Jennifer. Tell me about these problems.

Woman: Well, as you know, a lot of young people nowadays take a gap year between school and university. Some work, some travel and a lot combine the two by volunteering abroad. The problem is that there are a lot of places which take advantage of these volunteers. They have official looking websites but almost all the information on them, apart from the country the volunteers will go to, is often false.

Man: Can you give some examples?

Woman: Yes, I can. I did my gap year when I was eighteen. As I was interested in animal conservation and had been accepted by a university to study zoology the following year, I chose a position on what was described as an animal sanctuary in Central America. It turned out to be a zoo. I came home after one month. It was an expensive lesson.

Man: Expensive?

Woman: Yes, I paid two thousand pounds for my six months placement. I didn’t get any of it back, of course. The price included my flights, a place to stay, which was a small, dirty hut with no bathroom, and food.

Man: I guess that wasn’t very tasty!

Woman: Actually, it was. I’m a vegetarian and almost all the food consisted of beans and rice with spicy sauces. I sat and ate on my own and read a lot. There was no-⁠one to talk to. They were all really unfriendly.

Man: So what happened after you returned?

Woman: Well, I had a lot of free time before I started university so I decided to set up a website with advice for volunteers. I didn’t have much time for it while I was at university but I kept it going and, since I left university, it’s been a full time job.

Man: It must be very useful.

Woman: I hope so. Interestingly, I’ve started noticing older people coming to the site for advice. More and more retired people who are still fit and healthy are doing voluntary work. Also a few well-⁠off, middle-⁠aged people, often married couples whose children have grown-⁠up and left home. Although young people still make up the majority of volunteers, they only account for about fifty percent of the people using my site. I think this is because they have access to more advice at school and from people they know whereas older people are on their own.