`Gap year chance` for graduates - graduate jobs

Hundreds of recent university graduates struggling to find jobs due to the ongoing recession have the opportunity to go on "gap-year"-style trips under a new government-funded scheme.

It will enable graduates to participate in overseas expeditions with Raleigh International, working on development projects such as building schools and improving sanitation.

The initiative is designed to help them develop skills such as leadership, teamwork and communication, attributes which will make them more attractive to employers.

The £500,000 scheme will fund up to 500 participants, who will be expected to raise £1,000 themselves and pay for their own flights and vaccinations for the trips, which would normally cost about £3,000 a person, according to The Times.

Critics believe the scheme is little more than a way of reducing graduate unemployment at a time when record numbers are remaining jobless for six months after leaving university.

A spokesman for Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said that details of the scheme's financing would not be available until its formal launch in the coming week.