For Claire Gillis, Project Trust was to mean a year in a school for deaf children in Zimbabwe. For Christina Bell, it was to entail a year's sojourn in Thailand. Harnessing the ideals of youth, the registered charity takes students who have deferred their college places to various countries around the world where they assist a variety of projects.

The volunteers also benefit. Project Trust director Neville O'Grady says: "It's fun, it's educational and it's community based. It also helps students towards a career. I don't think that there is any job in the world where you're not dealing with people. It's those people skills that you develop . . . working under stress, becoming adaptible." These are the skills which employers are seeking, he adds.

Set up 30 years ago, Project Trust now has 90 projects in 22 countries. Each year, about 200 young volunteers, who have just finished second-level, go abroad for a year.

"We have a very careful matching process," says O'Grady. "Someone going into social sciences might be interested in working in a village with African children while somebody interested in learning Spanish might like to teach English in South America.

"Young people between 17-and-a-half and 19-and-a-half are exposed to all types of different conditions, experiences and challenges. By going through these challenges they are developing themselves. We work in developing countries in orphanages, children's homes, hospitals, schools, environmental and developmental projects." While the volunteers have no specific skills, he says they bring enthusiasm and a willingness to learn.

Claire and Christina are two of seven students from Northern Ireland who participated last year. This year, for the first time, Project Trust is also recruiting in the Republic. Speaking at the recent Higher Options conference in the RDS, Dublin, O'Grady said the level of interest was phenomenal.

Claire Gillis became interested after a volunteer came to speak at her school. She applied and spent five days on a selection course in Project Trust's island centre in Scotland. She was accepted (there are usually two applicants for every place) and deferred her entry to Manchester Metropolitan University where she is now studying social science.

"I worked and stayed in a school for the deaf in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe," she says. "I was primarily a teaching assistant in a Dominican boarding school with primary and second-level students, some from quite poor families. As well as teaching, I set up clubs and sporting activities for the children.

"The children spoke Shona but English sign language was the main means of communication - I learnt it as I went along. I loved the year. The children were great - happy and friendly. I spent most of the time playing. I would definitely recommend it."

Christina Bell went to Nakhon Sawan, a large city in Thailand. "It's off the tourist trail," she recalls. "There's a very big Chinese community there, about 90 per cent of the people are Chinese. I was teaching English in a second-level school . . . I was thrown in at the deep end.

"At the start it was really difficult but, when I was teaching, I spoke only English and I picked up a lot of Thai. We had to make up the syllabus ourselves. It got a lot easier as we went along.

"One of the hardest things to get used to is the fact that the school system is so different to ours. Students learn by accepting everything - there's no argument or debate and they wouldn't tell you if they didn't understand." At 18 years of age, Christina was teaching boys and girls from 11 to 16 years old.

What about social life? Christina travelled to Thailand with a partner. All Project Trust volunteers are paired. She stayed with a host family for three weeks and remained in contact with them and their friends.

Although it was totally unrelated to the medical studies which she begins this week in Glasgow, Christina says it was such a good experience to have that she would have no hesitation recommending it. "You learn so much about yourself."

There is one catch. The experience costs just over £3,000 stg. This includes airfare, insurance, training courses, accommodation, spending allowance and food, according to O'Grady.

It's not elitist, he insists. The volunteers must fundraise the money. "We have an extensive fund-raising training package and we show them how to go about it . . . how to write to trusts and businesses, travel bursaries, how to put on sponsored events."

For Claire Gillis, fund-raising was the most difficult part of the experience. "I did refreshments at the school concert. I had a quiz at Christmas. I got donations and, yes, I raised it all."

Many parents will be wondering what happens if it all goes wrong and their offspring want to come home. O'Grady says about three per cent of students each year have problems - these include illness, people who don't like the project and people with family problems back home.

"Each case is treated on an individual basis," he says. "If they don't like the project we try and talk them through it. We have a representative in each country. If it's homesickness, there is a process to get over it. We will also look at moving them to another project. In the end, if it doesn't work out, we will bring them home."

Project Trust is registered as a charity in Scotland. Contact: Project Trust, The Hebridean Centre, Isle of Coll, Argyll PA78 6TE, Scotland. Phone - 01879 230444. Web: http://www.projecttrust.org.uk