Determining the development of hard - and soft skills of adventure Gap Year participants

Abstract

Gap Year programmes started in Europe as the 'Grand 'Tour' (Cohen 2001:129; O'Shea, 2014:2). Today gap years are a growing trend and can be seen as any break taken between stages of life for between three and twenty-four months (Qian, 2013:16). There are many forms of Gap Year programmes with the main difference being either a structured and an unstructured programme (Snee, 2014:3). Stehlik (2010:365) explains that a constructive gap year is mostly filled with valuable life experiences and can contribute to the development of important life skills. This study examined structured gap year programmes that make use of adventure activities to determine the development of hard and soft skills in participants. Gap Year programmes started in Europe as the 'Grand 'Tour' (Cohen 2001:129; O'Shea, 2014:2). Today gap years are a growing trend and can be seen as any break taken between stages of life for between three and twenty-four months (Qian, 2013:16). There are many forms of Gap Year programmes with the main difference being either a structured and an unstructured programme (Snee, 2014:3). Stehlik (2010:365) explains that a constructive gap year is mostly filled with valuable life experiences and can contribute to the development of important life skills. This study examined structured gap year programmes that make use of adventure activities to determine the development of hard and soft skills in participants. The research showed that all interviewees had improved on the tested hard- and soft skills presented by the Beyond Adventure Structured Adventure Programme. Hard skills were grouped under one of three headings, namely, technical skills, environmental skills, and safety skills. These skills all showed improvement with the most progress in survival skills (technical skills), navigational skills (technical skills) and first-aid skills (technical skills). The soft skills were also grouped into three categories, namely, instructional methods, facilitation skills, and organisational skills. These soft skills all showed improvement with the most progress in communication skills and self-confidence. The study demonstrated that interviewees were more likely to form part of the adventure tourism sector upon completion of the BASAGYP. The research also found that interviewees had a clearer sense of what they wanted to do on completion of the Beyond Adventure Structured Adventure Programme. The researcher recommends that the development of hard- and soft skills in SAGYP be further investigated to determine whether these SAGYPs could be used as training mediums for future outdoor leaders in adventure tourism.