Derek Bingham looks at the advantages of the gap-year

Mark Twain had a point: wouldn’t it be so much better if we were born at the age of 80 and then progressed to 18?

For who would want to grow up these days? The ever-quickening pace of life makes few allowances for that all-important, vulnerable age when a child tries to become an adult, or for the time it must take.

The ethos of success is early. The goals young people are expected to achieve nowadays impose unending pressures, to which must be added the regimented steps regarded as necessary to reach them. Targets here, exams there, league tables - where is all the fun?  Where are the time and space to sort out thoughts, ambitions, social life, the opposite sex, emotions, problems, successes, failures and all the other things that go into trying to make sense of it all?

Schools used to be able to provide more opportunities for those aspects of ‘learning’ than they can now, thanks to the government’s one-fits-all ramshackle educational policies, and indeed a few still succeed in doing so. 

For the most part though, from the age of 15 the pressures created by the succession of exams a pupil must take to be successful means that the other, non academic, aspects get less of a look in.  With them go confidence gained from excelling in sport, music, drama, art, leadership, whatever, all of which may improve academic performance, pushed aside in the interests of exams.

So it is little surprise that the gap-year, taken before or after university or even later, has become so important, and why it is recognised as so by universities and employers as well as by students themselves. In part it is a chance to catch up with those aspects of education missed, but it is more than that.

The gap-year is a testing ground, an education in itself and more.  The challenge starts with deciding what to do with your time out, how to organise it and how to pay for it.  It progresses through coping with the journey itself and culminates in the realisation and satisfaction of what has been learned and achieved.

In this precious time, between the obligations of being a pupil and those of being a student, of an employee and of whatever the future may hold, the world is yours to do with as you will.  Few similar opportunities may occur for years to come.

There are no rules as to what constitutes a gap-year – it can include everything from teaching in a remote village in Africa to studying drama in New York. But no one should have any illusions that taking a gap-year is an easy option, a time to relax after the slog of A levels or whatever. Sitting around watching day-time TV and going to the pub for 12 months does not count!

To make the most of the opportunity, the gap-year must be exciting, fun and challenging. This may mean travelling to the Far East to help in re-building after the appalling disaster there, conservation work in Scotland or learning to snowboard. With a whole year to fill it might even mean all three.

Gap-year options include voluntary work around the world, teaching, learning languages, gaining qualifications (in sport, TEFL, languages, business skills, ICT etc), au pairing, internships, working as a sports instructor, acquiring or improving art/photography/drama/dance skills and, of course, travelling.

It is this diversity that makes gap-years so appealing.  There is, quite literally, a gap-year for everyone – for the adventurous, the ambitious, the sporty and the studious.

The key to a successful gap-year is preparation. That doesn’t mean a gap-year can’t be spontaneous, but it would be a real disappointment to get to the border of Nepal and not have the right visa, or to have to turn down the job of a lifetime in Australia through failure to secure a work permit before leaving the UK!

With so much on offer and with so many sixth-formers deciding to take a gap-year, many schools are opting to help their students prepare by offering advice, providing research resources (books, websites etc) and organising talks by experts.
 
Derek Bingham is Editor in Chief of Peridot Press, publishers of The Gap-Year Guidebook

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