THE Maldives is usually a honeymoon destination, but for one Worcestershire teacher one of its islands became home as he taught local schoolchildren.

Now the Voluntary Services Overseas organisation hopes the experiences of Michael Prowle, an English teacher at King Charles High School in Kidderminster, will encourage more people to help others overseas.

The 30-year-old taught secondary schoolchildren on the island of Kulhudhuffufhi while his partner, Hannah, taught primary schoolchildren. She is now a teacher at Lickhill First School in Stourport-on-Severn.

"I just wanted to test myself and see how resourceful I could be," said Mr Prowle, who lives in Vincent Road, off Wyld's Lane, Worcester.

"I was teaching at King's School Worcester before - that was a privileged environment.

"It was nice to transfer some skills and see how teaching differs from country to country. Teachers here have got more flexibility than in the Maldives where it's fairly regimented in terms of what they can and can't do.

"They would have been happy for us to stay, but two years on an island in the middle of nowhere can get too much. But we do miss it."

The couple have been back from the Indian Ocean islands for two terms and are now hoping other people will take up opportunities with VSO.

"It's certainly something we'll always remember doing," said Mr Prowle.

"We were in the far north of the islands, a long way from tourism and western civilisation.

"It suffers from acute human resource shortages and not many go into further education. My students weren't planning on going anywhere other than their island."

VSO says demand for volunteers is growing in areas such as education, social work and information technology.

"We are currently looking at a situation where we will have to inform many schools and hospitals that we cannot provide them with the teachers and health specialists they desperately need," said Matthew Bell, director of communications at VSO.