The Times - Gap Years
Added to website: 16 August 2006
The feature published in the Times newspaper on Tuesday 15th August 2006 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3223-2313014,00.html) raises some serious questions and concerns that you as a potential gap-year participant should think very hard about. We do believe that this article should be viewed in a positive light hope that it makes you think seriously and consider all your options before deciding on what you would like to do on your gap-year. Not only is there a need to ensure that you enjoy your gap-year trip, we firmly believe that you have a moral responsibility to ensure that your gap-year should make a positive contribution to the country in which you are working.
To help you understand how taking part in a Coral Cay Conservation expedition achieves both the personal enjoyment and sustainable benefits for the host country, we have answered the questions that the Times article urges you to ask your potential gap-year provider. If you need any further clarification on these questions or have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
• How many hours do I work and what will that work be?
Should you embark on a Coral Cay Conservation expedition, it is important firstly for you to realise that you will be working hard- this is not a holiday!
Upon arriving on site you will enter directly into a specially developed and intense Skills Development Programme (one week for terrestrial projects, two weeks for marine) during which time you will gain the tools and skills necessary to make you a useful part of the scientific data collection programme.
For more information please see http://www.coralcay.org/science/index.php.
On an average day this period of training involves early starts at 6am with the first lecture conducted by one of our in-country scientists, followed by a dive/trek. This is followed by lunch, another lecture and dive/trek, dinner and finally one more lecture or test and then a good nights sleep. Once you have completed and passed the science training, you are then part of the survey team and will be diving/trekking and collecting the scientific information that is behind the whole ethos of CCC.
So…. to summarise, a typical day of your life on a CCC expedition begins at 6am and runs until 10pm during which you are working for most of the time.
Whilst this seems a daunting task, you will find that you become motivated and interested in the work that you are doing.
• Does the work have the support of the local community?
The whole purpose of the work that CCC completes in the host-countries in which it works is to help local communities. Our help and that of the volunteers who join us is help-in-kind to assist local communities to better managing their coral reef and tropical forest resources.
The work that CCC has done over its 21 years of operation has been directly responsible for achieving many goals towards coral reef and tropical forest management. A few of these key achievements include the following; the collection of scientific data towards the designation of the Belize Barrier Reef as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the entirety of Danjugan Island in the Philippines being established as a marine and terrestrial reserve and the designation of over twenty locally managed marine reserves in Fiji.
All of the programmes that we have in the countries in which we operate have extremely close links and partnerships with local communities and management authorities. Indeed, it is these authorities that invite us into the places in which we work. Operating in this manner offers us a unique level of dynamism being able to respond directly to the wishes and needs of these Project Partners.
• What percentage of your fee goes to your volunteer programmes?
Approximately 60% of your fee goes to running the in-country volunteer programme and the costs of our projects reflect the costs of running such projects in a respective country. What we do is by its very nature expensive- our operational costs require us to utilse a range of expensive equipment and facilitate the provision of complex operational and safety considerations. CCC prides itself on being very transparent about where your fee goes and you can get more details at http://www.coralcay.org/costs/where_does_money_go.php.
• Does the organisation employ local staff?
On a normal marine expedition site, CCC employs a minimum of three local staff- a boat driver, cook, compressor operator. On a terrestrial site there are a number of mountain leaders that assist with the scientific trekking activities and planning of routes, in addition local cooks and guides are employed. By working in extremely close partnerships directly with local communities, we are able to share this wealth around the communities ensuring for example that jobs are done on a rotational basis so that the income is shared amongst the maximum number of households possible.
In addition to the employment provided at the community level, through the CCC trust fund, we provide four scholarship places per month of expedition for host-country nationals that are engaged in conservation activities. These scholarships are fully funded so that the host country national is trained in SCUBA diving and then the scientific survey techniques completely free-of-charge. This programme ensures that CCC leaves behind a lasting legacy of increased technical and human resources that allow the conservation work that we are doing to be continued.
• When a volunteer leaves, are others sent or does the placement end?
CCC expeditions operate on a four week rotation basis. The minimum amount of time a volunteer can spend with us is three weeks. We offer dive training to dive master standard on our sites and thus opportunities are open to all levels of training from the novice to the instructor. There is no maximum limit to the time a volunteer can spend on a CCC expedition. Each month there is a fresh intake of volunteers and the science training programme is repeated on a monthly basis. Operating in this manner ensures that CCC has a long-term presence at the project site ensuring that we can collect the scientific information that is so central to us as an organisation.
• What are the precise contact details? A good organisation can let you know months in advance where you are going and what you will be doing. A less reliable one will wait for you to sign up and pay before finding a placement
We publish our expedition dates and locations twelve months in advance and this reflects our long term commitment to our projects. During the course of as year each site may operate satellite survey sites in addition to its main base which volunteers can participate in, these are planned less far in advance but the base of operations stays the same. We are a proactive organisation and through our project development teams we are able to assess the scientific and ethical need to conduct our work in any specific geographic region. We do not remain at a project location to needlessly re-survey the same natural environment over and over again. The senior CCC management team have strategic plans that allow us to plan site moves in response to shifts in the needs of our in-country counterparts as far in advance as possible. When you sign-up to volunteer with CCC you will be told where we anticipate where we will be operating at the time of your expedition. Should this change you will be informed with the details before you depart on your trip.
• Is there training and support before and during the programme?
We have a collaborative venture with some dive training schools in the UK that will allow you as a volunteer to undertake some of your scuba training should you need it before you leave the UK. Please contact us for more details on this opportunity.
Pre-departure a volunteer has access to the experienced office staff via email and telephone, a wealth of information on our website and our freely available science reports. We run quarterly pre-departure meetings which we encourage our volunteers which offer advice on how to get the best out of your expedition and how best to prepare.
In terms of the training you will receive on site- it is in our interest to ensure that the training that you receive is thorough and of a very high standard- only this way can we ensure that you will be collecting high-quality survey data. The scientific training is conducted over a one/two-week period (dependant on marine/terrestrial project type) when you first arrive on site and details of the schedule are in the answer to the first question.
The Coral Cay Society allows you to stay involved on your return to the UK, indeed many of our volunteers come back to work for the organisation at a later date as field staff or as UK personnel (all of our office staff have participated in a CCC expedition, all are dive trained and all senior staff have spent a considerable amount of time working overseas for CCC.
As a founding member of the Year Out Group we strongly recommend that all individuals looking at taking a gap year utilise the checklist on the year out group website at http://www.yearoutgroup.org/checklist-students.htm.
