Home Or Away – Where Will You Be During Your Gap Year?
Saturday, December 25th, 2010Taking a gap year means taking a year where you can decide and arrange exactly what you want to do. Suggestions in the past have shown that people think only the ‘rich’ can take a gap year but of 230,000 18-24 year-olds who take a gap year, only a small percentage come from a rich background.
You have a number of different gap year options to choose from including travelling the world, volunteering or doing paid work to get experience for a year. Gap years and career breaks are brilliant experiences that allow you to visit some amazing places, make everlasting friendships and come back home with great stories to share.
Although it’s great if you can use your year off to establish some level of employability skills and do something worthwhile there really is nothing wrong with just letting off some steam after nearly two decades in education. It’s an ideal chance to see things you’ve always wanted to see, meet new people and have the holiday of a lifetime.
If you’re looking to do a bit of travelling, whether it’s round the country or round the world, there are organisations who’ll put together a travel package for you … and even arrange a spot of work for you to build your bank balance back up again while you’re away. Make sure you check out all available options first.
If you’re thinking of making a difference during your gap year, volunteering could be the way to go: you could find yourself helping put a community infrastructure together, or working with a medical aid programme … or even helping save your favourite species of endangered animals. The catch with this kind of gap year, though, is that although you’re making that difference – and making yourself much more marketable when it comes to finding work – it’s down to you to get to where you’re helping out – and back again.
Another option is to find a job and work for a year to gain some valuable experience and some cash which you may use for travelling or just simply to keep.
Whether you’ve got your future mapped out in front of you, or if you’re still making up your mind, a gap year can be the perfect chance to think things over without feeling pressured about it all. And whatever you end up doing during your gap year, you’ll come back refreshed, revitalised and ready to make a life for yourself.
You will have gained the kind of experience that universities and employers alike have now begun to realise really is valuable. For example, whatever you do in your gap year, wherever you go and whether you know it or not, you’ll be developing skills like communication, decision making, and working within a team – all useful, and to employers, all very valuable indeed.
If you have read this and think a gap year may be for you then check out notgoingtouni.co.uk who offers a range of different gap year options.
Notgoingtouni.co.uk offers advice and information on apprenticeships, gap year, in addition to jobs and training that exist outside of university. There are a number of free career guides and over 300 videos on distance learning, foundation degrees, gap years, voluntary work and advice on obtaining a sponsored degree.. This article, Home Or Away – Where Will You Be During Your Gap Year? is available for free reprint.