advertising

But then the recession struck and the former Charleston Academy pupil found himself redundant from the Glasgow firm for which he was working.

With the housing market grinding to a halt — and with it a declining demand for builders and architects — his endeavours to find another placement proved unproductive.

So the 27-year-old returned to his parents' home at Belladrum near Beauly to contemplate his next move.

Now he is preparing to travel to Japan where he will spend the next year teaching English at a school.

With unemployment rates in Scotland having risen by 8000 over the last year — taking the total out of work to 137,000 — Mr Gilchrist is among a growing number of people who are taking an enforced recession gap year.

"I was trying really hard to get a job anywhere in the UK — even outside architecture," he said. "You find the more it goes on, the more people are in the same situation looking for the same jobs. It was exhausting."

With prospects running out he decided to cast around for something different to fill the gap until the recession eased. Subsequently he signed up to a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course and is now waiting for his visa to be processed before heading off to Japan at the end of this month.

Although details have yet to be confirmed, he is taking up a placement as a teaching assistant in a school.

"I'll go for one year but even after that I could perhaps do another year," said Mr Gilchrist, who has not given up on his dream of becoming an architect.

"I want to finish my studies but this is now an opportunity to travel. I definitely want to go back into architecture — and I have always admired Japanese architecture. So who knows?"

As well as learning new skills, earning money and experiencing a different culture, Mr Gilchrist believes his Japanese experience will be a positive addition to his CV by showing potential post-recession employers that he had spent his "recession gap" productively.

"I think if you are in my situation and you are made redundant it is about acting in a positive way," he said.

It seems Mr Gilchrist is not the only one for whom the recession is proving to be a catalyst.

Joe Hallwood — managing director of TEFL Scotland — says growing numbers of people are heading all over the world to teach English as a means of escaping the recession.

While jobs may be in decline here, the demand for English teachers overseas is not.

Mr Hallwood and his wife Jennifer established their business in Beauly last year, and since then bookings for their courses have increased.

They range from 20-hour weekend courses at locations all over Scotland to 50-hour online training courses and are designed to give participants the skills and confidence to find paid work overseas.

"We have seen a 10 to 15 per cent rise in interest from people who have been made redundant," Mr Hallwood said. "It is becoming a real solution to riding the recession for people from all walks of life."

Mr Hallwood has first-hand experience of teaching English abroad after giving up his job in the UK several years ago. "I was in a place I didn't want to be in doing a job I didn't want to do," he recalled.

"I was working in the tax office in Hull and I saw a job advertised to teach English in Greece. No experience was required so I jumped on a plane and stayed there for six years.

"It was in the Peloponnese, in a small town right up in the mountains. It was totally unspoilt and was like stepping back 30 or 40 years."

He taught English conversation in a small school and although initially he did not have any teaching qualifications, he eventually did undertake formal courses. "Most schools want you because you speak English — most English is taught by non-native English speakers," he said.

"They can take students up to a certain level but they don't have the phrases or colloquialisms — and that's what the demand is for."

He later moved to France where he spent two years teaching English mainly for business use before returning to the UK in 2001.

Along the way he met his wife, originally from Marybugh, who had also headed abroad to teach English.

The couple now have three children.

On returning to this country Mr Hallwood worked for what is now a rival company, running short courses and developing and delivering TEFL courses until a round of redundancies last year prompted the family to head north to the Highlands.

Their new venture, TEFL Scotland, is the first organisation of its kind in the country to offer TEFL courses.

Courses are held from Dumfries to Stornoway as well as Inverness. "People come from all sorts of backgrounds," Mr Hallwood said. "Some students have degrees but certainly not everyone. We have had builders and all sorts of people come on the courses.

"It is for everyone regardless of background and experience. It is all about personality."

Asked about the recent rise in bookings, he said: "January and February are busy months anyway. That's when people decide to make life-changing decisions. But increasingly we are seeing more people who say they have been made redundant."

He says those getting work in Japan could earn up to £1100 a month, while South Korea was another popular destination where pay was around £1300 a month plus free accommodation. Closer to home, Mr Hallwood said there was high demand for English speakers in Spain, Greece and Eastern Europe.

A commonly-asked question was whether people's English was up to standard, he said, adding: "When I was teaching in a mountain town in Greece I heard different colloquialisms and different accents from New Zealand to Yorkshire. That is what is expected."

Another common question is whether people need to speak the language of their host country.

"People will ask, 'If you don't speak Japanese, how can you teach in Japan?' I say I am not a teacher.

"The whole point is you don't need to speak Japanese. You are speaking English fluently in the classroom — you are forcing people to speak English in the classroom."

v.sweeney@inverness-courier.co.uk