Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
And if you feel like you're fed up with the daily grind of a 9-to-5 job, a career break
can help you get out of your rut. Working full-time for even just ten years means roughly
around 20,000 hours of sitting in an office staring at your computer screen. A career break
will help you gain new perspective on life and work and will be an experience you remem-
ber for the rest of your life.
Increasingly, young people planning a gap-year do so with improving their CV in mind and
making sure they are more attractive to employers when they return. A well-planned gap-
year that includes a work placement and learning new skills is likely to be of a huge benefit
when you're back and looking for a job, particularly in tough economic times when work
may be hard to come by.
Guy Whitehead, managing director of leading gap-year company The Leap, told us: “It has
never been harder to gain meaningful employment, the job market is increasingly compet-
itive especially for graduates. There are numerous stories in the media of employers com-
plaining that young people do not have the necessary soft skills to take their place in the
'world of work'. Universities are increasingly on record highlighting the benefits of struc-
tured time out - students arrive having really thought through their choice of course, they
may have spent some time overseas focused on an aspect of their future course, demon-
strating a genuine passion and desire to learn that subject and as a result they are less likely
to drop out of their course.
“Students are learning that if they take a gap-year they need to fill their time wisely. Con-
sequently, gap-year participants are choosing projects that will enable them to acquire new
skills or hone existing ones and gain experience that will positively enhance their CV. Eith-
er by setting their sights on paid work and internships or volunteering projects where the
skills and experience required to succeed in a paid job, such as teamwork, good communic-
ation, problem solving, thinking on one's feet, learning a language and risk management,
can be acquired just as readily by participating as a volunteer. Doing this overseas can take
you out of your comfort zone and requires you to learn how to adjust to different customs
and cultures and to open your mind to new ideas and opportunities”.
Have tuition fees and the economy had an impact?
It's true that the uncertain economic times and the introduction of tuition fees of up to
£9000 a year have made people think much harder about what they do and how they spend
their money. But the anecdotal evidence from gap-year companies in 2014 is that business
is growing again and, in some cases, better than ever.
“The recession certainly had an impact on gappers over the past three to four years,” say
Kaya Responsible Travel.
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