Planning your gap year

As you finish school in late June, you have to remember that you do not have to return back to the UK until sometime in September if you plan on going to a UK University. This gives you a total of 15 Months. 

It is unlikely that you will ever have an opportunity again to have this amount of free time available in your working career and it is important that you make the best of the time you have.

For some of you, this may simply be an opportunity to travel, for others it may be to gain new experiences that otherwise would not be available to you, for others it may be an opportunity to help others in less fortunate circumstances than you have or to take part in a Conservation Project.

I would suggest that you consider the following and then try to make out a 'Time Line' filling in all of the relevant dates and places:

  • How long you plan to spend on your Gap Year.... this will give you the start and end dates for your time line
  • Research what sort of 'Charity Work/Volunteer Work' etc that you wish to participate in... go to link for further information
  • What travel you wish to do.... carefully think about this as you do not want to be back tracking, which be expensive on your 'Round the World Ticket'
  • This is a great time to do a qualification.... such as a diving cert.. PADI, Yacht Masters, Cooking course etc etc
  • Identify what you want to see and experience while travelling... I suggest that you go to the library and check out the Gap Section for details. Again follow the link for what resources we have.
  • Finance.... How are you going to pay for all this? What work are you going to do? Can the work support my University Application? Remember that a good Gap Year often gives you the edge over other students applying for the same course with similar grade predictions!!!
  • Despite the fact that you are just about to leave school.... getting your parents support and help in planning your gap Year s definitely very beneficial. They may have ideas, contacts and even some 'cash' to help you when you might need it.... so please talk to them about your plans.