God knows it’s hard to feel sorry for 18-year-olds, but the recent announcement by the Universities & Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) makes it tempting.

An extra 60,000 students have applied to universities this year, for a total of 13,000 extra places. I don’t care what A-level maths grade you got on Thursday, that’s one sum that doesn’t add up. Throw in the dodgy job market and it’s no wonder experts predict a bumper year for gap students.

School-leavers aren’t the only gappers, of course. Richard Oliver, of the Year Out Group, says that more than 11,000 over-25s took career breaks last year through the 38 operators he represents.

“With redundancies as they are,” he says, “that figure is certain to rise — and there are new graduates to consider, too. Career breaks are a great way to enhance your CV while you wait for the job market to improve.”

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Here, we round up the best gap-year options for school-leavers, graduates and career-breakers alike, whether backpacking through Indochina, teaching English in Japan or volunteering in Madagascar.

BECOME A VOLUNTEER

David Cameron did it in Rwanda, Prince William did it in Chile: “voluntourism” is the must-have badge on the gap-year backpack, seeing year-on-year growth when most tourism sectors are feeling the pinch. Rightly so: work and live among street kids in Mumbai, for example, and you’re going to learn more about India, and probably yourself, than if you ticked off every temple in Rajasthan.

That said, voluntourism is not without its faults. For one thing, however rewarding your teaching placement in Tanzania is, could it be costing a local teacher his job? For another, short-term, poorly managed placements can fail the very people they’re trying to help.

Pierre De Hanscutter, who runs an NGO in Vietnam, sees such projects all too often. “Tourists come in every two weeks, teach the children to say ‘Hello’ and ‘What is your name?’ — then two weeks later, a new lot do it all over again.” Other projects lack sustainability. “It’s one thing building a school library,” says Judith Brodie, director of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) UK, “but if you don’t stock it with books and fund a librarian, in the end all you’ve got is an empty building.”

Paradoxically, volunteering can be pricey, too. Many operators offer excellent value for money, placing you on well-run projects with reps to help if things go wrong. During Mexico’s swine-flu outbreak, for example, Projects Abroad relocated volunteers to unaffected coastal areas, while independent volunteers largely panicked and came home.

Others, however, charge huge sums, offering little more than a booking on someone else’s project. So, what’s the answer? Stay at home? No way. Yes, volunteering raises ethical concerns, but done properly it can touch the lives of all involved. If you tread carefully, picking projects where your money funds the work and making sure you’re really needed, the experience can be a cross-cultural win-win. Whether you go with an operator or contact an NGO independently — idealist.org and volunteerabroad.com have direct links to thousands of projects worldwide — check where your money is spent and ask for e-mail contact with volunteers currently in the field. If anyone can point out the pros and cons, it’s them.

Here are six projects that give value for money while changing lives for good.

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