The experience is fun, but if you are looking at this as a first step to work in the outdoors and already know how to behave outside, look elsewhere.
This is a program for very young people with no experience, and it's also totally not as hardcore as they sell it. Forget the label "expedition". Totally misleading. This is much more a Tour Guide thing then a Wilderness or Adventure Guide.
No focus on jobs. Never in the full duration we talked about navigating the industry. We did do an infinity of other useless workshops, though. "How to talk to collegues and head office", for instance. Answer: politely. Duration: 1h.
I'm not kidding.
They are also uninterested in training you. Some people kept doing things terribly and the instructors didn't care to correct them or explain again. Feedback is always positive no matter your performances, which in the long term is nauseating and unhelpful.
They win the moment you pay. Wonder why there is no selection process? Right.
The focus is solely on soft skills. You finish the program with nothing to show for it. The most concrete things we "learned" were... shopping for 5-6 days. Taking care of a budget for a week.
No hard skills learned besides reading a map and a compass. No knots, nothing technical.
Their marketing team does a great job at showing a much better program than what it actually is. Btw we also didn't do some of the best parts in the program, for no reason (rafting and mountain tops).
All in all, good fun, some things you will learn, but besides the chance to babysit in their programs don't expect this to be much else than proof of commitment on your CV.
If you never went outside your home, this is the program for you. If you are older and just a little more experienced, you'll be disappointed.
Response from Gapforce
Hi Gregorio,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, and sorry to hear that the course did not meet your expectations in respect of the advanced skills you were after. We have been running this course since 2008 and always strive to ensure people know what they are signing up for. Judging by the overwhelmingly positive feedback and reviews we receive, we do manage to achieve this in the vast majority of cases, so it is disappointing to hear that you feel this was not the case for you.
The course is designed to take aspiring and enthusiastic trainees from raw recruits to highly competent leaders, and therefore appeals to people with a wide range of backgrounds and prior experience. Our Instructor team are incredibly experienced and this, combined with the low instructor: trainee ratios, means they are usually able to make sure each and every participant gets the most out of the course. The course provides a balance of both hard and soft skills, both of which are equally as important in preparing trainees to become successful and competent leaders in an exciting and varied industry.
We are always open to feedback to see if there are any areas we can improve on, and therefore thank you for your review. If you have any further comments, please do email them through to the office and we would be more than happy to discuss these with you in person. In the meantime, thank you for taking part in our course and we wish you every success with your future career.