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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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Building the Big Society

Community based projects and local social enterprises have been run for many years. However, a malaise in local activism and increasing centralisation under the previous Government has led to the development of the Big Society approach. This has the potential to improve local services and take citizen power to the next level.

Much has been said over the last 18 months about the Big Society and what it means for the UK. Earlier this year, The Prime Minister described the Big Society as “giving people more power and control to improve their lives and communities”. This is a mantra which is difficult to argue against, regardless of your political standpoint.

However, rather than posturing, the Coalition is taking radical steps to make this a reality. This is being achieved by a multitude of new mechanisms and approaches.

To fund new projects, a Big Society Bank is being set up, with £400m worth of capital. This is being funded from a combination of money in dormant bank accounts and from financial institutions themselves. The Government described the Bank as “a cornerstone of the social investment market”, and it will be able to co-invest in projects and underwrite and guarantee investments.

Local people themselves will now have the tools to take over local assets and services which they believe can be run or utilised more effectively. Contained within the Localism Bill are two key elements to this.

The Community Right to Challenge allows social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations to approach local authorities to request to run a service they provide. If they can show that their bid will “promote or improve the social, economic or environmental well being of the authority’s area”, then the local authority must consider putting the service out to tender.

This will allow services to be provided by local businesses and charities, helping to encourage local innovation and leading to improvements in their quality and more dynamic local economies.

Similarly, local authorities must now keep a list of ‘community assets’. Nominations for the list can be made by members of the local community and these must be considered properly. Certain conditions will then apply to assets included on the list before they can be sold by the owners, including informing the local authority and providing a moratorium period during which interested groups can seek to prepare bids.

This will result in local communities having greater involvement in the way in which local assets, such as land and buildings, can be utilised for the benefit of the local area.

However, the key element to the success of the Big Society is engaging people now and for years to come in this approach. To do so, we need to encourage a greater sense of philanthropy and volunteering in our society.

A recent Cabinet Office Green Paper on Giving, contains a number of recommendations on the former, and the Chancellor confirmed in the Budget that the Gift Aid process will be simplified, helping charities across the country.

To encouraging volunteering, a National Citizen Service is being introduced initially for 10,000 young people aged 16. It is due to begin this summer and its aim is to give “teenagers the chance to learn new skills that will help them to make a positive contribution to their community”.

This is where organisations such as V Inspired come in. Their new Big Society’s Big Mouth campaign is an opportunity for young people to express views on the issues they care about and what areas of volunteering they would like to become involved with.

Young people are the future and I hope to see many of them make a positive contribution to the debate and to building a stronger, bigger society in the years to come.
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