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What’s the connection between the Big Society and the government’s vision for higher education, school leavers and graduate skills? The answer is a “green gap year” for students.

Imagine the energy of teenage volunteers able to complete community service, help with projects to address climate change and contribute towards sustainability. This could be delivered through a voluntary period of National Service by school leavers (and older students) before they start university.

Cameron and the Con-Lib coalition have highlighted the two-month National Citizen Service initiative as “a programme for 16-year-olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens”, and a green gap year would extend this idea.

The US has blazed a trail in terms of linking service to higher education via the Service Learning programme, which – according to the Corporation for National and Community Service – “enhances the community through the service provided, but also has powerful learning consequences for the students”.

Many US presidents have promoted forms of national service – from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to Bill Clinton’s 300,000-strong AmeriCorps – and the approach has gained further momentum in the post-9/11 era. As President Obama comments: “Now is exactly the time when we need more volunteerism.”

As far back as 1938, the American educator John Dewey argued that “all genuine education comes about through experience”. He contended that interaction between individuals and their surroundings can foster valuable reflection.

Today in the UK, many school leavers face the prospect of A-level success that will not translate into university places. So what could a fulfilling green gap year do for them?

First, it could help teenagers become more independent before they make the move to university – a “safe” first step away from home and toward independence. Second, it could provide real-world experience: life and study skills such as working with others, personal organisation and meeting deadlines. There are countless projects – environmental improvements, regeneration initiatives and health and welfare schemes – that could benefit from an injection of young blood.

A green gap year could also extend and give serious meaning to secondary school citizenship classes; represent a means to address the democratic deficit by re-connecting young voters with society; and perhaps form the basis of reflection for academic credit. Other potential benefits include harnessing the idealism and enthusiasm of youth and fostering cross-generational work, such as young people helping elderly neighbours and gaining knowledge and skills from them.

Such a workforce could accelerate the attack on global warming while undertaking purposeful “employment” in a time of recession: something that should impress employers pre- or post-graduation. The work of volunteers could strengthen communities, improve participants’ lives while transforming the lives of others, and help to engender mutuality. As the Prime Minister has observed, there is a desperate need to “create communities with oomph” and this mechanism could help turn the Big Society rhetoric into reality.

Specifically in terms of higher education, National Service could extend existing volunteering – with Brownies, sports clubs, mentoring and so on. It could also constitute a bridge to independent learning at university and offer breathing space, allowing individuals the chance to reflect on whether they really want to go to university (or not!). Furthermore, the UK would be following in the footsteps of Germany, France and Italy, which all have national programmes for long-term voluntary service undertaken by young people.

Of course, there are dangers: poor communities must not be further stigmatised or exploited as a free resource for student education, and neither must those on National Service displace paid employees. Similarly the service must be meaningful and not chain someone to a photocopier. Additionally, there is the risk of patronising the “needy” and inducing dependence on charity.

So what’s in it for the students?

My suggestion is that in exchange for, say, six months of community service, volunteers should receive an educational credit of £4,000 offset against their first-year university tuition fees. Such a payment could provide a welcome boost for individuals on low incomes, with funds provided by the proposed Big Society Bank (which is expected to be able to draw on at least £60 million garnered from dormant accounts). As Martin Luther King observed: “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

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We’ve heard a lot through the discussions here and elsewhere about all the different ideas for getting young people to take action in their communities and change things for the better. No-one says it’s a bad idea. There are many proposals from all sorts of bodies for how it could and should be done and no doubt there will be many more. But ….. only 40% currently do it on a regular basis. If you were to give v one piece of advice on how we could double the number of young people making genuine efforts to improve themselves and the lot of others during these greyish times what would that be? Read less

Over the last few months I’ve watched with interest the growing participation in Big Society’s Big Mouth but more importantly, the emerging themes and concerns of participants. The contributions have been magnificent, thought provoking and challenging. I hope to comment on some of the dominant issues as the project comes to its natural end. The first topic I want to reflect on is the high level of concern about education and employment. With one in five of the age group unemployed and the recent changes to education fees and maintenance allowances it is perhaps not surprising.

There are however a large number of young people who appear to have actively disengaged from education, employment and training and I’m truly interested to hear more from them or about them. At a recent meeting with the Director General of the CBI he said that employers are really concerned for those young people who appear not to be ready for or interested in work and employers say they are ready and willing to put solutions in place if only they knew what they were! He asked me the question ‘what do young people tell v about why they ‘drop out’ or just actively disengage? Well, why do you ‘drop out’? What is it that leads you to reject education and work? Or have they got it all wrong and you don’t ‘drop out’, they’ve misunderstood and you just can’t get in?

Of great importance too are the questions: ‘what could employers usefully do to make getting into work easier?’ and ‘what could schools and colleges do to make staying in education a more attractive option?’.

Feel free to voice your opinion in the true tradition (albeit a short one) of BSBM!

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