The Diploma of Global Citizenship in Community Development – Early Childhood Education & Development is an immersive 6 or 12-week Academy experience based in Zanzibar, Tanzania, combining meaningful international volunteering, practical early childhood education experience, Global Citizenship learning, personal development, cultural immersion and travel.

Think of it as travel, volunteering and learning all rolled into one.

For 6 or 12 weeks, Zanzibar becomes home. You'll live alongside an international Academy cohort, spend your weekdays working consistently within our community education initiative, learn alongside Tanzanian educators, take part in practical workshops and cultural experiences, explore your own personal development and work towards a meaningful Legacy Project with your placement.

Around all of that, you'll experience what makes Zanzibar such an incredible place to spend part of your gap year. Think white-sand beaches, the Indian Ocean, Swahili culture, tropical island life, local food, snorkelling, Stone Town, weekend adventures and social life with your Academy cohort.

And your experience doesn't stop at the island. You'll also journey across to mainland Tanzania, travelling through the Usambara Mountains and northern Tanzania before experiencing one of the country's greatest adventures — safari.

The experience is designed to be fun, social, adventurous and genuinely meaningful, while giving you something substantial to carry forward when you return home.

Alongside the Academy, you'll complete the academic requirements of the relevant Level 3 Diploma in Global Citizenship in Community Development, giving you an accredited outcome alongside your international practical experience.

The Academy takes inspiration from the Scandinavian folk school concept: bringing young people together to live, learn, travel and grow through shared real-world experiences rather than making education something that only happens inside a classroom.

We've adapted that philosophy to something we know extremely well — international volunteering and community development in Tanzania.

After years of working with international volunteers, we've learned that ethical volunteering is a collaborative effort. Choosing an ethical, community-led organisation is incredibly important, but the volunteer themselves also plays a major role in whether their contribution is genuinely positive.

Working within another country and culture can be complicated. Development challenges are rarely caused by one simple problem with one obvious solution. They're often interconnected and influenced by economics, education, health, history, culture, access to opportunity, family structures and many other factors. Cultural expectations and ways of communicating can also differ significantly from what you're accustomed to at home.

That's why the Academy doesn't simply send you to a placement each morning.

We provide structured guidance and Global Citizenship education alongside your practical experience, helping you understand cultural context, question assumptions, explore root causes rather than only visible symptoms, build meaningful relationships and think critically about what responsible and sustainable contribution actually looks like.

The goal isn't to tell you what to think. It's to give you the tools, experiences and perspectives to think more deeply about the world you're experiencing firsthand.

At the heart of your Academy experience is your consistent placement within our community education initiative in Zanzibar.

You'll work alongside Tanzanian educators supporting young children during an incredibly important stage of their cognitive, emotional, physical and social development.

Early childhood education creates important foundations for later learning, while providing children with opportunities to develop communication, confidence, independence, creativity, friendships and early literacy and numeracy skills.

You'll become part of the everyday learning environment, working alongside local educators rather than replacing them. Your role is to provide additional support and ideas while learning from the people who understand their children, families and community best.

Depending on the day, you might support early literacy and numeracy, basic English, storytelling, songs, arts and crafts, sensory activities, creative play, movement, outdoor games or small-group learning.

Play is an important part of the approach. You'll explore how creative, interactive and play-based activities can support children's development while adapting ideas to the cultural context, resources and realities of education in Zanzibar.

No two mornings will be exactly the same — and that's part of working with young children!

One of the biggest advantages of the Academy is consistency.

You're not spending a handful of mornings at a school before moving on.

During your first weeks, your priority is to learn. You'll observe how the learning environment operates, understand daily routines, get to know the educators and children and gradually build relationships.

As the weeks progress, your role develops naturally.

You'll become increasingly confident supporting activities, working with smaller groups, preparing learning experiences and contributing ideas alongside local educators. You'll begin recognising individual children's personalities and learning styles and develop a much stronger understanding of both the strengths and challenges within the learning environment.

Participants joining the 12-week Academy naturally have even more time to develop those relationships, deepen their understanding and take greater responsibility where appropriate.

That consistency allows you to move beyond the surface level of international volunteering and become a genuinely useful additional member of the learning environment.

Your placement is only one part of what you're learning.

Throughout the Academy, you'll participate in practical Global Citizenship sessions exploring some of the bigger questions surrounding international volunteering and development.

• What does ethical volunteering actually mean?
• Why can well-intentioned projects sometimes cause unintended problems?
• What's the difference between addressing a symptom and understanding its root cause?
• How do culture, privilege, economics and access to opportunity influence the challenges communities experience?
• What is capacity building?
• How can international volunteers contribute without taking over?
• And how do we ensure local people remain at the centre of decisions affecting their own communities?

These aren't designed as traditional classroom lectures. Sessions are interactive and closely connected to what you're actually experiencing in Zanzibar.

Something you notice at your placement might become part of a discussion the following afternoon. A workshop may cause you to reconsider something you interpreted very differently during your first week.

That's where the real learning happens: learning something, experiencing it, questioning it and then taking that new understanding back into the real world.

As your understanding of the placement grows, you'll begin working collaboratively towards one of the most important components of the Academy: your Legacy Project.

Rather than arriving in Zanzibar with assumptions about what children, educators or the community need, you'll spend time speaking with local educators, observing the learning environment and understanding their priorities.

Then you'll work alongside your placement and other Academy participants to develop something practical that can continue being useful after your cohort leaves.

Within Early Childhood Education & Development, this could involve developing a bank of literacy or numeracy activities, reusable phonics resources, play-based activity cards, sensory activities, classroom learning stations, outdoor games or educator-friendly activity guides using affordable and locally available materials.

You'll have time to develop the idea, trial it within the learning environment, receive feedback, make changes and create a proper handover.

The purpose isn't to produce something that simply looks impressive.

It's to contribute something realistic, culturally relevant, sustainable and genuinely useful to the educators and community who will continue the work long after you return home.

The Academy isn't only about what you can contribute to your placement.

It's also about what happens to you when you move to a tropical island off the coast of East Africa and build a life somewhere completely different from home.

For some participants, this will be their first significant experience travelling independently or living away from home. You'll navigate a different culture, build relationships with people from completely different backgrounds, solve problems independently and experience situations that challenge your expectations and perspectives.

Weekly personal growth, self-awareness and reflection sessions give you space to process that journey.

Through workshops, group discussions and your Global Impact Journal, you'll explore topics such as confidence, independence, identity, values, resilience, communication, leadership, relationships, assumptions, cultural adjustment and future direction.

You won't simply finish the program having experienced a lot.

You'll have been encouraged to think about what those experiences actually taught you.

Living in Zanzibar gives you an opportunity to experience the island far beyond the perspective of a typical holiday.

Cultural immersion is therefore woven throughout the Academy.

You'll learn practical Swahili, experience local food and traditions, participate in cultural workshops and learn from Tanzanian educators, community partners and guest speakers.

Zanzibar has its own distinctive history and identity, shaped over centuries by African, Swahili, Arab and Indian Ocean influences. Living on the island gives you the opportunity to experience those influences in everyday life while developing a much deeper understanding of the community you're working within.

But some of the most important cultural learning will happen without you even noticing.

It happens when you begin using Swahili words naturally. When you know your way around Paje. When you understand something at your placement that completely confused you during Week 1. When you discover your favourite local food or café. When you make a cultural mistake and learn from it.

Over time, Zanzibar starts feeling less like somewhere you're visiting and more like somewhere you're actually living.

And while the Academy has genuine educational and community-development foundations, we haven't forgotten one very important thing:

You're spending your gap year in Zanzibar.

Your Academy home base places you on Zanzibar's beautiful east coast, with the Indian Ocean, beaches and island life becoming part of your everyday experience.

Travel and adventure are built into the Academy.

Across your program, you'll head out on Adventure Days and experiences that may include Stone Town, snorkelling and ocean adventures, Jozani, beaches, local food and cultural experiences, island exploration and plenty of opportunities to enjoy Zanzibar with your Academy cohort.

But we don't want you to travel all the way to Tanzania and experience only one side of the country.

Your Academy therefore also includes a major journey to mainland Tanzania.

During the 6-week Academy, you'll travel by ferry from Zanzibar to the mainland and journey through the Usambara Mountains towards Arusha and northern Tanzania, before experiencing an unforgettable safari through Tarangire National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

The 12-week Academy gives you time to take that adventure even further, with an extended overland experience through mainland Tanzania and some of the country's most extraordinary landscapes and wildlife destinations.

You won't have to choose between doing something meaningful and having the adventure you dreamed about when you decided to take a gap year.

The two are intentionally built together.

A huge part of the Academy is the people you'll share it with.

Unlike our regular rolling volunteer programs, Academy participants join on set intake dates, meaning you'll arrive and progress through the experience alongside your cohort.

You'll live together at our Academy home base in Zanzibar, close to the beach on the island's east coast, while participants complete different internship pathways across community development, health and other fields.

Everyone's placement experience may be different, but you'll come together throughout the week for workshops, cultural activities, adventures and social events.

There'll be shared meals, beach afternoons, games and movie nights, free time, weekend adventures, spontaneous plans and regular social events.

Thursday evening is generally our main debrief and social night, giving everyone a chance to catch up on the week before heading out or enjoying an event together at home.

And you'll still have independence.

There is downtime built into the program, particularly on Friday afternoons and Sundays, giving you time to head to the beach, explore the island, meet friends, relax, organise your own activities or occasionally do absolutely nothing.

Because living abroad shouldn't feel like a school excursion where every minute is scheduled for you.

Alongside everything you're experiencing in Zanzibar, you'll be completing the academic components of your Level 3 Diploma in Global Citizenship in Community Development.

The qualification is Ofqual-regulated at Level 3 and carries 16 UCAS Tariff points in the UK. Depending on the specific qualification and recognition arrangements, it may also correspond to approximately 20–21 ECTS credits in Europe. Recognition and credit transfer can vary between countries and institutions, so participants should confirm how the qualification may be recognised by their own university or education provider.

You'll also develop skills that extend well beyond early childhood education: cross-cultural communication, teaching and facilitation, teamwork, adaptability, leadership, critical thinking, community engagement, independence and responsible international practice.

For participants considering future study or careers in education, childcare, teaching, psychology, occupational therapy, speech pathology, social work, community services, international development or related fields, the placement provides particularly relevant practical exposure.

But you don't need to have your future figured out before you arrive.

That's part of what a gap year can be for.

Boresha Global Academy gives you 6 or 12 weeks to get out into the world, experience a different way of life, challenge yourself, learn alongside Tanzanian educators and communities, make friends from around the world and discover more about where you might want to go next.

It's not just a volunteer placement. It's not just a course. And it's definitely not just a holiday.

It's a travel, volunteering and learning experience all in one — giving you the adventure of a gap year, the depth of living abroad, the purpose of meaningful community engagement and the future value of an accredited Global Citizenship qualification.