The United Kingdom (UK) student population has a longstanding tradition of taking a gap year. It started in the 19th Century, when wealthy parents bundled their heirs off to Europe. They typically did the Grand Tour, taking in great works of art and experiencing the continental culture.
Upon returning home, these youths were considered well-rounded and ready to join the workforce. If they were of a particularly wealthy class, they only needed to take their place in society.
These days, students of all stripes take gap years for different reasons. Some wish to gain a bit of life experience or to polish up the language skills they picked up in school. Others want to have a taste of adventure or do something good for the environment and/or others.
Gap years can be beneficial. One reason is that they give students a well-needed break from their studies. Research shows that the grinding, intense pressure to succeed academically often leads to student burnout.
Are gap year programs really necessary, though? We investigated gap year programs to find out:
- the reasons students take gap years
- what a gap year entails
- what's good and bad about gap year programs
- less obvious gap year opportunities.
Of course, it’s never a good idea to turn a bunch of youngsters loose to manage travelling on their own. At that age, they have little experience managing money and making travel arrangements, or what to do in an emergency. Let alone the fact that these days, the world is a far more dangerous place to navigate on one's own.
Even in ‘Ye Olde Days’, students usually had some sort of chaperone or guide; we’ve not strayed too far from those roots. Today, all sorts of programs exist to ensure participants’ safety while providing a life-changing experience. Or do they amount to volunteer tourism aimed at a specific market? Superprof delivers this report.
Why Take a Gap Year?
In our introduction, we pointed to a few reasons to take a gap year. They include practising your language skills, helping out on a project you care about and taking a study break. Learning life skills is another.
A 2021 survey of first-year university students revealed that these learners wish they had learned more about financial literacy. It's not just uni students who struggle, global surveys point to an alarming lack of financial skills across the population. Managing your finances is a vital life skill that you could develop while taking a gap year.
Being able to manage situations with calm and competence is another essential life skill many students lack. Granted, gap years aren't supposed to present you with danger at every turn. But you may lose your luggage or passport, miss your flight or find your lodging unsuitable. These are all things you must manage on the fly.
Most gap year programs don't leave you to manage things on your own. However, if you plan an off-the-beaten-path experience for yourself, these matters will be on your shoulders. Taking charge of your circumstances and finding solutions gives you the confidence to make your way through your 'standard' life.
Did you know that a gap year looks great on your university application? Many students think that they have to stick to the grind lest they fall behind. The oft-touted narrative that taking time off from your studies will cost you on the other end isn't true.
Your education and future career do not have an expiry date and you're not in competition with every other student on the planet. You can safely take a few months off without worrying about lost opportunities. Instead, try to see it as other students not taking time off are the ones missing out!
Often, students have no clue what they 'want to be when they grow up'. This dogged insistence on choosing a university degree plan without properly knowing what you're all about does you a disservice. Those few months you spend outside of class will help you put your life and wants into perspective. You may even find that you'd rather apprentice your way into a career than go the academic route.
On the other hand, you may return to academia with a renewed sense of purpose. Seeing a bit of the world and experiencing other cultures may be just what you need to revive your desire to learn. You might stumble across a condition or situation you could help resolve if only you had the certification to do so.
You might take off for a bit of adventure tourism or a stint in wildlife conservation. Regardless of which program you choose, you'll come away from the experience more focused on what you want your future to look like. You'll be ready to complete your transition from adolescent to adult, ready to work toward your goals. And you'll be far richer for your experiences.
Gap Year Particulars
With the reasons why students take gap years clear, let’s figure out what ‘gap year’ really means. The crucial part of the definition is time. Learners may take a semester away from their studies; a gap year may last up to eight months. Seldom does a gap year eat up an entire year.
Often, students plead for a gap year after secondary school, before they apply to college. Others who have already started their university studies may take a break before moving on to graduate school.
If you are just now preparing to sit your A-Levels, you may reasonably take a gap year but if you are still at GCSE level, you’ll have to wait a bit longer before taking a gap year. Nothing's stopping you from planning one, though.
Taking a gap year does not give you license to do as you wish. You must do something productive during that time. Working or volunteering, travelling or going on an adventure tour. You may go on your own – what's called a self-planned gap year, or with an established program.
Gap-year websites typically tout overseas adventures. But if you’d rather not go abroad, you can still find out what a gap year is all about right here at home. Across the UK, you'll find plenty of volunteer opportunities. You might prefer working as an intern with a company that fits your career goals or find a job on your own.
You may even decide to travel around the country. Our home's historical structures and varied terrain make it well worth your while, particularly if you plan to study history at uni. You might be an amateur photographer or aspiring filmmaker; a gap year photography tour would do wonders for your portfolio.
There are drawbacks to going on a gap year adventure alone, though. Safety is one good reason to sign up for a gap year program. Everything from injury and illness to running out of money become minimal risks when you’re in company. But don't settle on that solution just because it's practical; let’s look at the good and bad sides of the gap year program industry.
The Pros of Gap Year Programs
Having to choose your school-leaving exam subjects is stressful. Choosing what to do and where to go on a gap year can be a bit overwhelming too.
Our world is now more connected than ever before; even the most inhospitable terrain is now fairly easily accessible. If you thirst for adventure and long for discovery, how can you choose where to go? And what will you do once you get there?
Let’s take that thought further by presuming you know where you want to go. How much do you know about the culture, about the laws and how safe your destination(and what you want to do) is?
The companies that run gap year programs have people on the ground at the destinations they promote. They have established relationships with the local community and officials.
They are experienced in shepherding energetic, eager participants. They know how to keep them safe and educate them about their host culture’s social norms. They provide a once-in-a-lifetime experience designed to enrich their clients' lives.
Another benefit of ‘gapping’ with a program is the diversity of programs available. Do you care about marine conservation or are you more about environmental conservation? What about education in developing countries? Or would you rather develop survival skills, taught and honed in the wilderness?
How could you participate in such activities if not through a gap year program? Of course, if you are studying marine biology and are ‘gapping’ before graduate school, you may sign up for an internship through school. But such opportunities can be had through a gap year program, too.
Are you interested? Do you want to know more? Would you like other gap year ideas to consider before settling on a program? In this table, we've collected contact information from the most popular providers of gap year programs.
Gap Year Programs
| Name of Company | What They Offer | Web Address |
|---|---|---|
| GVI | conservation programs, educational programs, animal care, multi-country volunteering | www.gvi.co.uk |
| Gapforce | Community volunteering abroad, conservation programs, adventure travel, outdoor training courses | https://gapforce.org/gb |
| Projects Abroad | conservation, youth development, sports coaching, archaeology, building, teaching | www.projects-abroad.co.uk |
| Year Out Group | Conservation in Africa, ski internships in Canada, marine conservation in Thailand and more | https://yearoutgroup.org/gap-year-programs/ |
The Cons of Gap Year Programs
Perhaps the biggest strike against such programs is their cost. Some run in the thousands of pounds!
Of course, you have to factor in the cost of airfare if you’re planning to go abroad. The local connections and support the program provides and your housing, account for some of that fee, too. Some programs include food and health insurance, so those rates might not be so bad.
On the other hand, those who don’t have thousands of pounds to throw around are forced to miss out on a valuable development experience. Or are they? As mentioned before, you don’t have to go overseas to enjoy a gap year. You can engage in volunteer work right here at home.
If working with the underprivileged is your passion, there is no shortage of such people here. You might help young children learn how to read or do your part to promote adult literacy. Are you interested in early child development and want to volunteer as an au pair? Planning to become a civil engineer and want to try your hand at community development?
You could launch yourself into any such sabbatical activities without paying a company to arrange it for you.
You might, for example, do a homestay on an organic farm to learn about animal husbandry. This would be a great gap year for anyone planning on studying veterinary medicine. If you've only ever wanted to be a doctor, you might volunteer at your local hospital before you enrol in medical school.
And what about trekking all over the Scottish Highlands or across the Pennines? By not engaging with a gap year program, you are much more in control of your experiences even if you do decide to take your gap year abroad.
Besides, there are plenty of organisations that offer anything from backpacking to volunteer programs, often at minimal or no cost to you. You can learn more about them in our complete gap year guide.
And if you want to work abroad, you’re in luck! The demand for native English speakers to teach in Asia is huge and, often, schools will pay for English teachers’ airfare as well as accommodations, and they may even provide an in-country guide!
In this table, we list how you too might take advantage of such opportunities.
Local and International Gap Year Opportunities
| Organisation Name | What you can do | Web Address |
|---|---|---|
| Help Exchange | Homestays, teaching, construction work, childcare and more | www.helpx.net |
| Do It | Fundraising, dog walking, working with children and much more | https://do-it.org |
| Volunteering England | This page will direct you to other volunteer organisations | www.ncvo.org.uk |
| The Association of Guernsey Charities | work with therapy dogs, in an organic garden, coordinating community events and more | www.charity.org.gg |
| Volunteering Matters | work with children or needy adults, help distressed families | https://volunteeringmatters.org.uk |
| Join In | A sports-oriented charity | www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/pages/volunteering/ |
| Dave's ESL Cafe | Teaching English all over the world | www.eslcafe.com |
Take Your Gap Year Off the Beaten Path
Earlier, you read about teaching English abroad during your gap year. That is an excellent way to live and work within a culture that interests you. However, this opportunity would only be open to undergraduates taking a gap year ahead of their graduate studies. Reputable schools abroad typically require a bachelor's degree and some teaching experience.
Here's where your tutoring experience comes in handy. If you have no tutoring experience, you can build a tutor profile on a tutoring platform like Superprof and earn money tutoring online. In fact, you may decide to spend your gap year as an online tutor. You could help younger learners in the UK or teach English abroad.
The first entry in the table above is HelpX. It's one of the earliest help exchange platforms on the internet; it boasts thousands of hosts worldwide. You can choose your destination country or region and comb through the listed offerings. To contact hosts, you must create a profile.
They all offer room and board in exchange for a bit of work. Cultural exchange is a part of the package, as is transportation to and from the host location. You'll find help requests for everything from light carpentry and organic farming to minding children and preparing meals.
If you decide to arrange your own gap year adventure, you should take care to choose only from qualified sites that vet their hosts. Social media often presents gap year opportunities. We've even run across offers on Facebook. Your safety and the quality of experience could be in question if you sign on with a host who can't prove their bona fides.
Remember that taking a gap year needn't cost you a bundle. HelpX requires you to pay for your own transportation to your host's location. If you choose a host in the UK, you might spend only the cost of a train ticket. If you travel abroad, you'll foot the bill for airfare as well as traveller's insurance - don't go without such a policy.
One more thing to note about taking a gap year: you must prove you didn't simply lie about all day. A college student taking a break from studies ahead of university should present evidence of a qualified gap year experience. Even if your time off consisted of helping an elderly relative, a thank you letter to go with your essay about your experiences would work.
With all these ideas popping around our heads, it's time to look at the bottom line. Is taking a gap year a good or bad idea?
Should You Sign On With a Gap Year Program?
The choice is up to you and the adults in your life. That’s not much help, is it? Let’s try to do a bit better.
If you are on the younger side of the gap year crowd, you might not have enough life experience to ensure your safety and well-being as you travel around on your own. For anyone going on sabbatical between A-Levels and enrolling in university, a gap year program makes sense.
However, if you already have three or four years of university study under your belt, why not go on your own or with some friends? Being at university, you’ve already experienced a measure of personal growth. Take this time to learn more about yourself before you dive headlong into the professional world.
It’s not hard to find turtle conservation projects in Costa Rica. If turtles aren’t your thing, you can search for more suitable projects abroad. Or at home. Our country has adventure travel, internships and volunteer opportunities aplenty.
The benefit of seeking out your own adventure is finding what you want and taking it on your terms. Besides, it will likely cost you far less. And you'll have the added satisfaction of knowing you are taking it upon yourself to make the most of your skills and abilities.
Still, there is a lot to be said for gapping with a program, safety being the most obvious. But another benefit of working through a gap year program is that they offer volunteering opportunities you might not otherwise find on your own. And if you are an adventuresome sort, you could hardly do better than with such a program.
In a sense, you might say that gap year programs have created their market. Before they came along, one could go volunteer overseas at their own risk. If you have ready cash to lay out and feel like you need that security, go for it.
Just remember that you can also create your own opportunities and save that wad of cash for other things. Now, it's your turn to talk. What would you say to a friend who asks: “Should I take a gap year?”
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