Why take a gap year or career break?

Gap years aren’t always planned a long time in advance. Sometimes unexpected exam results, changing your mind about the course you thought you wanted to do or a change in your circumstances might make taking a gap year the right decision.

Even if the planning is last-minute, gap years require careful planning to make the most of your time out. This is not just a chance to kick back and relax! It’s your chance to look at a combination of travel, work, volunteering and studying. Even UCAS agrees that the valuable experience gained during a well-structured gap year can give you an advantage over others when going to university or looking for work.

Gap years are increasingly being taken not just between school and higher education, but also after graduating.

You should think about the goals you want to achieve by taking a gap year – even if it is just to justify this time out to a future employer or university.

• become sure about your higher education plans
• perform better in your future studying with higher motivation and confidence
• decide on your chosen career path and improve your employability
• develop stronger social and personal skills, such as self confidence and self esteem
• benefit from a multicultural view of the world
• feel that you are contributing to society

Your finances are important when planning your gap year

Ideally, you could aim to be in profit by the end of your gap year. This will give your student life a great start and could help take some of the stress out of studying. Most importantly, try not to run up debts. This will require careful planning and realistic goals, but is possible if you commit to saving up money & fundraising.

You don’t need to stay at home to work and save money before you head off on your travels. There are lots of job opportunities available for you whilst you are overseas – such as fruit picking jobs, au pair jobs, summer camp jobs, bar work, working in call centres in exciting locations such as Asia or Australia. You could also look into working abroad for an international company, such as IBM.

You could also take this opportunity to get some temporary work in your chosen career, to see if you have made the right decision. This could also provide you with some useful experience for your CV and possibly even a contact for a permanent job in the future.

Voluntary work may not help you bring money in, but it will provide valuable material for your CV and could provide useful references.