The Global Xchange Programme is based on a model of youth exchanges originally developed in Canada over thirty years ago. Known as World Youth, these exchanges were designed to be fully reciprocal, involving young people from the developed and developing world in equal numbers, and working on community projects in both areas.
This model was brought to the UK in 1999 by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), who ran youth exchanges for several years with funding from the Millennium Commission. In early 2004 VSO, the British Council, and Community Service Volunteers (CSV) entered into a partnership to continue developing this model, and the Global Xchange partnership was born. Since 2007, VSO and the British Council have been developing Global Xchange to become what it is today.
Global Xchange: The Deal
You:
– join a team of 18 people your age (18-25), half from the UK and half from an exchange country
– spend three months working in an exchange country and three months working in the UK. Exchange countries vary, but recent locations for GX programmes have been Nigeria, Nepal, Ghana and Bangladesh
– live with a host home during the exchange, giving you a real experience of local culture from the communities you are in
– live and work with a counterpart from your exchange country, doing real jobs that make a difference to people living in challenging conditions
– Have the experience of a lifetime if you're up for the challenge.
We:
– pay for your training, visas, travel, medical checks, injections, accommodation and food
– provide you with an allowance
– support you through trained and experienced Programme Supervisors
– don't ask you to pay for the experience. Instead we ask you to fundraise £600 towards the cost. We pay for everything else.
Sound good? Click here to find out more! »
Application period open!
We are now accepting applications for our September 2008 programmes. We plan to run eight exchanges in September with likely exchange country partners including Nigeria, Nepal, Cameroon, India, Rwanda, Morocco and China. Number of exchanges and countries are subject to change. September Departures:
Application Period: Wed, Jan 2nd to noon on Wed, Mar 19th (6 months before programme) Provisionally all Assessment Days will be held on or between April 14th-18th, 21st and 22nd 2008.
Applicants must be able to attend an Assessment Day in London on these scheduled dates in order to proceed with their application.
If successful at Assessment Day, you must be available to attend a compulsory training course on either June 13th to 16th or July 4th to 7th. Both these courses will be held at the Global Xchange training centre in Birmingham. Please Note: Applications received outside these dates will not be considered.
Before applying, you should check the following:
That you are 18-25 years old and available for 6 months (if are 25 at the start of the programme and turn 26 during the programme, you are still eligible to apply)
That you know what Global Xchange is all about
How to apply
Please read the introductory information carefully before completing your application and send it to us, along with the confidential monitoring and evalutaion form, by no later than 12 noon on Wednesday 19th March 2008.
Introductory Information (pdf)
Monitoring and Evaluation Form (pdf)
Application Form (pdf)
