Memories of close shaves make John Doyle laugh. The tall, red-haired 22-yearold is heading for South America. From Tramore, he had been drifting since his Leaving Cert in 1993. The programme, he admits, was "a great experience. It gave me confidence and it's made me want to see a bit more of the world."

He choose to learn German and his host family were Berliners. He cheerfully admits he found them "weird" - it was total immersion with no English at all spoken. He discovered both Berlin and himself "hanging out" with people from the language school.

The close shave bits began when he went out on his own to find a place to live and work. He managed both, working variously as a cathederal tour guide, an organiser of trade fairs, a carpenter's helper and supermarket hand. Quietly confident, he says he's a different person and that he "came home to see what's changed. I'm saving for another cultural experience. I want to go to Central America and down to South America."

Others from that first programme include Aoife Lonergan, 22, from Waterford city. She went to Germany, taught English and made enough money to settle in Australia. Darragh O'Connor, 23, from Tramore, went to Italy and is now working for Dawn Meats in that country. Maella Fahy is in her midtwenties and working in her home town of Dungarvan where she's organising a tourism centre. "All of those who did the programme have developed and moved on," Pat Kelly affirms. "Not one of them is content to do nothing."