Graduate Advice - The Advantages of a Gap Year
The Advantages of a Gap Year
A constructive gap year after uni can be a shrewd career move, as well as a rewarding, mindyanking end in itself. Studies show employers look for four main qualities in a graduate: self-reliance, people skills, general employment skills and specialist skills. Not every student graduates with aces in all four suits. But that doesn't mean they can't get them. And where better than on a gap year, doing something they enjoy?
For instance, let's suppose Steve Student graduates with a good degree from a respected uni, but the milkround has proved a bit sour for him. Steve sits himself down and takes a long hard look at his skill set. He can tick most boxes, but he has to admit, he does prefer to be told what he's got to do and then he gets it done. So Steve takes one year, one rucksack, a one-way ticket to Guadalajara and a cashpoint card that won't get him far past the airport. This is the deep end when it comes to learning self-reliance. In a year's time, he'll have plenty of tales to tell and he'll be more selfassured and more employable.
Most graduates who take a gap year don't reflect on how what they choose to do might enhance their skills portfolio. If they did and thought they lacked something - particularly if it was specialist skills - they might opt for postgrad study instead (see page 26). But there are some things you can't learn in a lecture hall. Even some specialist skills. It's easy to justify a gap if you see it as laying the foundation of future jobworthiness. What's more, as a graduate, you can often offer more to a gap year project than a school-leaver can. This can mean you get to do more interesting things and get more responsibility, which in turn will mean that you can get more out of it. As Nicole Snelling of advice site Mind the Gap Year says, 'Perhaps it is time to stop seeing what we do in terms of on the one hand what we do to develop ourselves, and on the other hand what we do for fun. There's no rule that says it can't be both.'
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Benita Sabharwal - Costa Rica & Nicaragua - 2009I had just finished my psychology degree and I was unemployed, searching for jobs and getting nowhere. Not even recruitment/temp agencies would take me on because I had no experience. I applied to the Raleigh Graduate Bursary Award because I have always wanted to volunteer abroad where I could make a difference... ... more |
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Charlotte Paddock - Harnas Wildlife Foundation, NamibiaI decided to take some time out following my degree, because I knew I would be going on to complete further studies, and really wanted a nice break in between! I couldn’t manage a gap year, but enjoyed the time I spent away... ... more |
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Julia Sloboda - TravelWorksI spent eight weeks in various national parks across Costa Rica as part of a TravelWorks gap year. Costa Rica: the best thing I have ever done in my life! I worked a total of eight weeks in various national parks - searching for turtle nests in the night, digging out eggs and burying them again in a safer place, bringing hatched turtle babies down to sea ... more |
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