The age old question of whether to take a year off in between school & university or between university and your career has often been a question of time to travel vs work experience. But now it seems that there are a few alternatives that mean you can do both.
After searching through the options, it appears that there are 3 really great contenders. Charity/Volunteer Work, Internships, & Foreign Language Courses.
option 1:volunteering or working for a charity
The first option is to get involved in some kind of charity or volunteer work. This could be anything from building a school in Africa to helping record coral decline by SCUBA diving in the Caribbean.
With many of these experiences you will get a great opportunity to visit locals and places off the beaten track. Joining a big companies program will take the effort out of your search but often means less value for your money.
Large companies like GVI offer many varied packages to interesting places all over the & can be a great option if you want an easy way to get on board a program. Nevertheless you will often pay your fair share for the placement. Going through such large organizations can mean the money does not always stay with the project entirely and you can end up spending large amounts of money to live in a place that should be super cheap.
An alternative is to search for small grassroots projects where the money stays with the project. One way is to go through universities or community websites and see what projects they have going on or join projects through small organizations such as www.openmindproject.com. These usually end up being great value (with more of a donation to the project).
Watch out for great projects at a webpage called www.volunteermatch.org. This allows you to be matched (without any cost to you or the organization) to the right volunteer experience based on your skills and knowledge.
Option 2: International Internships
The second option is to do an internship abroad. This is a great way to enhance your CV and there are often opportunities overseas so you can combine them with a holiday. In saying that it's important to ask questions about your tasks, hours & inclusions ( i.e activities etc). You don't necessarily want to get bogged down working for someone everyday of your holiday ending up filing papers or getting coffee's for the boss rather than learning any hands on skills.
There are plenty of placement agencies who can find internship programs to suit your needs all over the world. Frequently these kind of services charge a substantial placement fee but they will arrange housing along with the placement.
Going directly with the small organisation is often less costly as you remove the middle man. Frequently organizations also appreciate this direct approach because it shows that you have motivation.
Option 3: Language Courses Abroad
The next opportunity, which is quite cost effective in many cases, is doing a language course abroad. It looks great on your CV if you're able to speak another language and when you pick a great school you will have a blast.
A good idea is to choose schools with great activity programs & an emphasis on fun as well as education.
A good place to start your search is with a site like www.traveledventures.com. They specialize in language schools that have a great social and cultural activities programs and are a super helpful & friendly bunch when it comes to organizing your trip from start to finish including organizing accommodation & courses as well as solving any problems you have while your away on your big adventure.
There are also often internship abroad for students coupled with a language program. So it's a double win then for your CV! This is also a great way to have the ability to stay over the visa free time period as well as obtain course credits if you need to.
A GAP year is a fantastic time for you to explore the world, determine what you want to do and get experience in a field you love. So start planning, get out there and enjoy the trip of your life.
After searching through the options, it appears that there are 3 really great contenders. Charity/Volunteer Work, Internships, & Foreign Language Courses.
option 1:volunteering or working for a charity
The first option is to get involved in some kind of charity or volunteer work. This could be anything from building a school in Africa to helping record coral decline by SCUBA diving in the Caribbean.
With many of these experiences you will get a great opportunity to visit locals and places off the beaten track. Joining a big companies program will take the effort out of your search but often means less value for your money.
Large companies like GVI offer many varied packages to interesting places all over the & can be a great option if you want an easy way to get on board a program. Nevertheless you will often pay your fair share for the placement. Going through such large organizations can mean the money does not always stay with the project entirely and you can end up spending large amounts of money to live in a place that should be super cheap.
An alternative is to search for small grassroots projects where the money stays with the project. One way is to go through universities or community websites and see what projects they have going on or join projects through small organizations such as www.openmindproject.com. These usually end up being great value (with more of a donation to the project).
Watch out for great projects at a webpage called www.volunteermatch.org. This allows you to be matched (without any cost to you or the organization) to the right volunteer experience based on your skills and knowledge.
Option 2: International Internships
The second option is to do an internship abroad. This is a great way to enhance your CV and there are often opportunities overseas so you can combine them with a holiday. In saying that it's important to ask questions about your tasks, hours & inclusions ( i.e activities etc). You don't necessarily want to get bogged down working for someone everyday of your holiday ending up filing papers or getting coffee's for the boss rather than learning any hands on skills.
There are plenty of placement agencies who can find internship programs to suit your needs all over the world. Frequently these kind of services charge a substantial placement fee but they will arrange housing along with the placement.
Going directly with the small organisation is often less costly as you remove the middle man. Frequently organizations also appreciate this direct approach because it shows that you have motivation.
Option 3: Language Courses Abroad
The next opportunity, which is quite cost effective in many cases, is doing a language course abroad. It looks great on your CV if you're able to speak another language and when you pick a great school you will have a blast.
A good idea is to choose schools with great activity programs & an emphasis on fun as well as education.
A good place to start your search is with a site like www.traveledventures.com. They specialize in language schools that have a great social and cultural activities programs and are a super helpful & friendly bunch when it comes to organizing your trip from start to finish including organizing accommodation & courses as well as solving any problems you have while your away on your big adventure.
There are also often internship abroad for students coupled with a language program. So it's a double win then for your CV! This is also a great way to have the ability to stay over the visa free time period as well as obtain course credits if you need to.
A GAP year is a fantastic time for you to explore the world, determine what you want to do and get experience in a field you love. So start planning, get out there and enjoy the trip of your life.
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To find out more information about internship possibilitiesor language travel programsconsider digging a little bit deeper at Traveledventures.com
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