(Man aged about 30): My guest today on The Morning Show is Jennifer Spright who is here to talk about gap years and a few problems that people have had while doing them. Welcome, Jenny.
(Woman aged about 23): Sorry, but I prefer to be called Jennifer. Only my family call me Jenny.
Man: Sorry, Jennifer. Tell me about these problems.
Woman: Well, as you know, a lot of young people nowadays take a gap year be¬tween school and university. Some work, some travel and a lot combine the two by volunteering abroad. The problem is that there are a lot of places which take ad¬vantage of these volunteers. They have official looking websites but almost all the information on them, apart from the country the volunteers will go to, is often false.
Man: Can you give some examples?
Woman: Yes, I can. I did my gap year when I was eighteen. As I was interested in animal conservation and had been accepted by a university to study zoology the following year, I chose a position on what was described as an animal sanctuary in Central America. It turned out to be a zoo. I came home after one month. It was an expensive lesson.
Man: Expensive?
Woman: Yes, I paid two thousand pounds for my six months placement. I didn’t get any of it back, of course. The price included my flights, a place to stay, which was a small, dirty hut with no bathroom, and food.
Man: I guess that wasn’t very tasty!
Woman: Actually, it was. I’m a vegetarian and almost all the food consisted of beans and rice with spicy sauces. I sat and ate on my own and read a lot. There was no-one to talk to. They were all really unfriendly.
Man: So what happened after you returned?
Woman: Well, I had a lot of free time before I started university so I decided to set up a website with advice for volunteers. I didn’t have much time for it while I was at university but I kept it going and, since I left university, it’s been a full time job. 
Man: It must be very useful.
Woman: I hope so. Interestingly, I’ve started noticing older people coming to the site for advice. More and more retired people who are still fit and healthy are doing voluntary work. Also a few well-off, middle-aged people, often married couples whose children have grown-up and left home. Although young people still make up the majority of volunteers, they only account for about fifty percent of the peo¬ple using my site. I think this is because they have access to more advice at school and from people they know whereas older people are on their own.