Gap Year

A gap year is constructive time out - it can be anywhere, anytime, doing anything. You could be building a school in Chile, doing some work experience, basking on a beach in Fiji or simply working for a year to save enough money for university or a new house - or even taking time out to change your career. It is about living life to the full and realising that there is a world of opportunity out there just waiting to be explored.

In the UK a 'gap year' was traditionally viewed as the activity of taking time out before university. The word on the street was that it involved travel for the wealthy few and pretty much nothing for the rest of us. Nowadays, however, all sorts of people are taking ‘gaps’, doing a thousand different things. A gap year is now one of the most talked about phenomena of this millennium. With the baby-boomer generation fast approaching retirement, globalisation changing the nature of society and young people now heading into a life of 'portfolio careers', taking time out is now seen as a positive, rather than a negative thing.

Advantages:

- have time to think about their career

- find different aspects of life

- work and save some money

- meet different people and know diverse cultures

- personal development

- you get a chance to know the world outside school and to seek out adventure
- you gain maturity, self-confidence and self-esteem

Disadvantages:

- lose contact with some people

- lose study habits

- it may be expensive unless you are paid for your work