- The Observer,
- Sunday June 8 2003
Former SAS soldier Henry Gordon Clark will this month blindfold several people, stuff handkerchiefs in their mouths, push them into a room full of smoke and blast them with deafening recordings of sirens and explosions. 'I want them to understand what a burning building feels like and teach them how to get out,' said Clark.
But the training exercise won't be for his former elite army unit. Nor will the victims be journalists or aid workers off to hostile foreign parts. This is the preparation for 'gap year', when tens of thousands of young Britons spend a year travelling before they start university.
The gap-year phenomenon is booming. It is thought 200,000 took a year off last year, either before going to university or between graduating and getting a job. But fears that terrorists are targeting popular tourists areas, as in last year's Bali bombing, have raised concern for those heading out to explore the world. Many parents are now keen to make sure their offspring are well prepared before they go.
Several courses run by ex-members of the SAS or other military units are preparing people for any situation they might encounter. Clark's Knowledge Gap company will begin its lessons on Exmoor at the end of June. 'There is a big interest in this. We are getting more and more inquiries,' said Clark, who left the SAS eight years ago.
The drill with the simulated burning building is to train gap-year students in fire safety. Last year a youth hostel in Australia popular with backpackers burned down, killing 15 young travellers.
It is generally parents who insist their offspring go on the courses. Sara Kaltz, 18, has completed a course before having a gap year mainly in France and the United States. She plans to spend most of her time with other young people, but may do some travelling by herself in the US. That was a source of concern for her father. 'He is more pleased now that I have been on the course. He's read all the notes I made. My parents are still a bit apprehensive, but not as much,' she said.
Kaltz went on a one-day course organised by a company called Objective Team, set up last year. Though it was founded by four former members of the armed forces - including two who were in the SAS - military-style training does not play a part.
Instead, the courses seek to teach the basics of preparation for any trip. These include planning schedules and routes, how to spot danger, how to deal with local cultures and avoid causing offence. They also stress the importance of learning as much as possible about each country to be visited. Some courses give students written exams.
Basic first aid is key. Traffic accidents, heat exhaustion, sunstroke and poisonous insect and snake bites are hazards students can face. 'We just want to get an idea of danger in their minds so they are prepared for things,' said Objective's Nick Edmunds, who spent nine years in the Coldstream Guards.
Many of the most useful parts of the course are simple travel tips. For instance, crossing a border should always be done in daylight if possible; when walking with a rucksack on your back it is possible to look at your shadow to see if anybody is sneaking up behind you and trying to steal from it; sucking poison from a snake bite is not advisable because, although it might help the victim, it will rapidly poison the person doing the sucking.
Rory Cheyne, 18, has spent four months teaching English in Kenya. He said his Objective course provided vital knowledge on how to avoid danger, even in crime areas such as downtown Nairobi. 'After the course I was able to take everything in my stride,' he said.
Course teachers do not think the world has become more dangerous. They say fears have been raised mainly because so many more people are travelling on gap years and the range of destinations is much broader. 'There is a search for the most unusual or adventurous place to go and that can cause problems,' said Edmunds. 'But 99.9 per cent of people have a great time and the most serious thing that happens is that they lose their camera.'
