SCOTT McQuarrie had been working for the Bank of Scotland for five years when he first suspected the financial sector was heading for a fall and a round of redundancies might leave him jobless. As an assistant client manager based at the South Gyle i
n Edinburgh he spent his life working nine to five, transferring funds, researching potential investments and managing change in the wake of the Halifax merger.
But one day, while travelling by train to a conference in Stirling, he caught a glimpse of a different life. It was a poster for Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), the organisation that takes people with skills from the first world and puts them to work in the third. He decided he wasn't going to wait for the axe to fall. Months later, McQuarrie, who had a sports degree from Edinburgh University's Moray House, quit his job and set off to coach football to children in Ghana.
"It opened my eyes to the fact life didn't have to be constantly gruelling, that people can be happy with what they have," says McQuarrie, 30, who now works as a programmes adviser for Projects Abroad, the organisation that set up his original placement. "Compared to the bank, it was just so exciting. From the moment you woke up, it was a challenge. You didn't know if water was going to come out of the tap, who you were going to bump into, or whether your placement was going to work out OK."
McQuarrie took his leap of faith when the credit crunch was just beginning to bite. But now the UK is officially in recession and unemployment is approaching the two million mark, thousands of other people with uncertain futures are following in his footsteps and throwing off the shackles of their old life. They are seeing the global financial crisis not as a reason for doom and gloom, but as an opportunity to embark on a journey of adventure and self-fulfilment.
Last week, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, caused controversy when he suggested redundancy might come as a relief for high-fliers, caught on the treadmill. As his speech was being made, it emerged that former soldier William Foxton, who lost his life savings in the Madoff fraud, had shot himself in a Southampton park.
"One of the great implications of this turbulence for us is to reboot our sense of what a truly flourishing human life consists of," Chartres said. "The 'CrackBerry' culture is dangerously addictive and switching off from it is notoriously difficult."
Although some critics accused the bishop of being detached from the real world, soaring interest in volunteering abroad and to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) courses suggest the recession is acting as a catalyst for some people to re-evaluate their lives and pursue long-forgotten dreams.
"I would say over the past three to four months there has been an increase of 10-15% in applications, mostly from people who have been made redundant," says Joe Hallwood, managing director of TEFL Scotland. "These individuals are looking to take 'a recession gap', filling their time with something worthwhile and hoping to return a year or two later when times will be brighter."
Global Vision International took the highest number of bookings in its nine-year history last month, with former estate agents, bankers and construction workers among the applicants. The British Antarctic Survey was deluged with calls from plumbers, carpenters, electricians and chefs after advertising 38 jobs at its outposts at the South Pole, with the prospect of round-the-clock darkness and temperatures of -50°C doing nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of workers apparently desperate to escape the bleak economic climate of the UK. Business is also booming at VSO.
"It's not just those who have been made redundant, but those who can see the writing on the wall," says Dr Peter Slowe, founder of Projects Abroad. "They are maybe people who always meant to do this, maybe they missed out on a gap year after leaving school, or they had a baby or whatever. But we are certainly seeing an increase in older people, who are coming to us with very useful skills – lawyers who have gone out to work on human rights projects in Ghana and South Africa, for example; physiotherapists and people from the financial sector who have gone out to work in banks in Mongolia or Shanghai. They get the opportunity to develop new skills which may help them change their career, or improve their chances of getting a job in their own field later on."
Even more dramatically, the recession is expected to continue to fuel the rise in emigration, which – with 200,000 British citizens a year departing these shores – is currently running at higher levels than at any time since before the First World War.
Thousands of people eager to start new lives abroad are expected to turn up to the Emigrate show at the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston, Edinburgh, next weekend, with Australia, where unemployment is at a 33-year low, likely to prove one of the most popular destinations.
Of course, it would be foolish to suggest everyone can take something positive from the recession. Sociologists warn that while downturns can result in increased altruism and a sense of solidarity in some quarters, they also tend to be marked by a rise in the crime and suicide figures.
And while graduates worried about the jobs market are taking gap years, the options for those leaving school without qualifications are more limited. The recession has already sparked a resurgence of interest in the armed forces, after years where recruitment has been a challenge. Despite the continuing deaths in Afghanistan, the latest figures from the MoD show inquiries at careers offices doubled in the last 10 weeks.
However, historians suggest previous recessions have indeed had unexpected dividends. "For four years, between 1929 and 1932, it looked as if the world was falling apart," Dr John Stevenson, author of The Slump, has said. "Unemployment was at 25% and the economy shrank by a third. But there were many positive trends during that period. As fortunes plummeted, dance hall and cinemas thrived. And people, with time on their hands, took up cheap outdoor pursuits such as hiking, rambling, cycling."
Dr John Bone, of Aberdeen University's sociology department, believes whether or not the recession has a positive or negative impact on people depends on how content they are with their existing lives and whether or not they are in a position to radically change them.
"People in modern societies tend to live their lives according to well established routines and, for the most part, we rely on these routines to provide us with a sense of stability and security," he says. "During periods when the structures that support those routines become less predictable, and are no longer supporting our lives, we have to re-establish them to find a new position in the social order.
"Some people who are locked into mundane routines and who have just been treading water may welcome such events as an opportunity to refashion their lives. However, change can be seen as an opportunity or as a threat depending on your personal circumstances. In particular, rapid change can be very destructive where people feel a loss of control over their circumstances, and where this renders their lives precarious and unpredictable."
The impact of this uncertainty is reflected in a report published by think tank Civitas last week which cited research from the 1980s as evidence to suggest the recession would lead to a dip in marriage rates. "As the recession bites, it's going to be harder for partners to make that commitment – without stability and jobs they won't have the confidence to say: 'I do'," said Anastasia de Waal, a social policy analyst at Civitas. There are also fears the economic downturn will lead couples to put having a family on hold. In the 1930s the birth rate fell by a 10th worldwide.
Architectural assistant Michael Gilchrist was not one of those looking for a change when he fell victim to the economic crisis, but he is nevertheless determined to turn his bad luck to his advantage.
He was months away from becoming a fully-qualified architect when – in July last year – the firm he was working for, Duco architects, closed its Glasgow office and he was made redundant. The 26-year-old, from Inverness, spent several fruitless months applying for jobs, often finding 60 others had applied for the same post. Convinced he wasn't going to find anything else in the near future, he took a TEFL course and is now preparing to head off to Japan, where he will earn approximately £1,000 more a year than he was earning here.
"I have always wanted to travel, although I had never really thought of being a teacher," he says. "Sometimes I do have a wobble and think: 'Is this really what I should be doing?' But I chose Japan because of its architecture – I will be able to wander round and look at the buildings, while I'm there at least – and I will learn new skills.
"I'm sure it will look better on my CV than working in a bar, and hopefully – when the economic situation improves – I will be in a better position to achieve my goal of becoming an architect."
As for Scott McQuarrie, far removed from the crisis that grips the banking community, he has no regrets about the way his life has turned out. "Not everyone thought I should leave my job," he says. "And there were real challenges – playing football in 42°C, for one, and the overwhelming friendliness of the people, which though great, took a bit of getting used to.
"But going to Ghana was a truly liberating experience and being with the children was a privilege. It was the best decision I could have taken."
The full article contains 1683 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
