Why AV

Testimonials

Think about the future

( Last Updated: 21-07-2010 )

AV assisted me in a number of different ways. Even before I went on placement AV affected me personally.  I was tremendously keen to finance my four month placement in Uganda by myself, and became supremely aware of the ‘value of money', budgeting, and self control.  The fact that you are working towards earning a sum that will fundamentally enrich the lives of the school with whom you are placed makes it seem all the more worthy.  You're not working just to enjoy yourself at the weekend; you are actually positively affecting the development of the children you engage with, which sets AV miles apart from the generic travelling gap year. 

The level of support and the care that goes into the selection of those one is placed with if fantastically advantageous and serves to prepare you for the diverse characters and situations you may experience in the work place.  To all intents and purposes candidates are plonked down in the middle of nowhere, not knowing which way is north and with 15 - 20 contemporaries who you have only known for the length of time it takes to fly to your chosen country; and yet, because you have all made the decision to choose AV you all share some key aims: to enjoy yourself, to work diligently and to expose yourselves to new and testing obstacles...this is almost identical to the circumstances a job seeking graduate faces in the current employment market, and I believe I was better prepared for it.

The independence gained from the opportunity to travel at the end of the placement is invaluable, and the structure of AV's team means that you feel supported, but not overrun.  With representatives located in key areas you have the opportunity to direct your own movements as a group, and that self reliance and motivation is a skill or ability that I have come to rely on hugely in my current role; and, given the diversity of the group in which I was placed, my self confidence and self-awareness underwent an absolute transformation over my 4 months.

I couldn't recommend AV highly enough.  It is a form of preparation that set the ground work for me to emerge from University with clearer goals, and a level of maturity that many of my contemporaries lacked.

James, Uganda Teaching

Back