The Director

John Vessey  was a Senior Master and Tutor at Eton College and a Governor of Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham.  He worked with Voluntary Service Overseas, and served on the Councils of the British Schools Exploring Society and the Young Explorers Trust.  He is a graduate of Bristol University and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

For thirty years John has helped young people plan their gaps, building up extensive computerised databases and a library of information on study courses, training schemes, work experience, scientific and adventure expeditions, volunteer placements and independent travel.

As the founding director of the UK's first Universities Summer School - providing bright state school sixth-formers with an intellectual stimulus, and with graduates and post graduates of seven UK and US universities in the family, he is well placed to advise on UCAS applications, personal statements and the demands of professional recruiters.

John has organised and led scores of expeditions to areas including jungle, arctic, desert, coastal water, mountain and high altitude environments.  He has travelled in more than thirty-five countries on foot and ski, and by chicken bus, lorry, raft, longboat, kayak, camel and yak.

His clients have used their gaps to explore aspects of the natural and social sciences, the built environment, sites and routes of historic or artistic interest and much more. His daughters took time out in Malawi, Canada, Morocco and Kashmir. Former students have cycled across America, driven from London to Cape Town, reached Beijing overland, kayaked the arctic Lofoten Islands, circumnavigated the world on horseback, traversed the Greenland ice cap, and reached the summit of Mount Everest.

As a seasoned fund-raiser assisting expeditions with social, medical and building projects in Africa and Asia, and a leader with long experience in travel health and safety, John is well qualified to advise those planning a gap year - and reassure those who stay at home!

Recommended by the Daily Telegraph Guide for Gappers