Pure Potential

How to plan a gap year in five easy steps

With a record number of students taking a gap year before going to university, and an increasing number opting to take early career breaks. Leading youth development charity and volunteering organisation Lattitude looks at where to start, what to consider and how to organise your gap year.

1. Research

There are many different options available to those wishing to take a gap year and it is worth looking into these to find the one that is best for you. There are many questions that are worth considering before you start, such as do you want to work or volunteer, in the UK, or overseas? Do you want to travel independently or would you rather go with an organisation? Use the web to get you thinking - the following websites www.yearoutgroup.org or www.gapyear.com and www.lattitude.org.uk will provide general information, news stories and case studies.

2. Budget

Find out about the costs of the trip and work out how you will raise this money. Can it be funded by a job, do you have savings, and do you need to split your year between earning and then volunteering or travelling later on? If you choose to go with an organisation it is worth enquiring if there is a fundraising team on hand to provide advice on events and ideas to help you raise the money for your trip. At Lattitude our dedicated fundraising team, can provide help and assistance and we run a bursary scheme for those with financial difficulties to help fund their volunteering placement.

3. Safety

Safety is a big concern for those taking a year out and it is worth considering what support you would like to have during your year out. By going with a reputable organisation you will have the back-up, support and expertise of a team back in the UK and many organisations have on-the-ground representatives overseas who will visit you whilst you are on your placement. Find out what safety measures are available in case any thing should happen while you are away. Look out for organisations that are a member of the Foreign Commonwealth’s ‘Know before you Go’ scheme and who provide a 24 hour telephone number in case of an emergency.

4. Career Prospects

Will your choice of year out enhance your CV for today’s competitive job market? Many organisations offer placements and projects that can provide insight into your prospective career field. If you are interested in working in medicine why not spend your year out doing a medical or caring placement with street children, the elderly or adults with learning difficulties, or if you are interested in teaching why not teach in an overseas community?

Structured Lattitude year placements with the right organisation are recognised by employers as worthwhile and a constructive way to spend a gap year. Employers tend to look favourably on the skills a year out can offer, such as team skills, independence and good communication skills.

Some organisations also run careers schemes, which at the end of your placement or university course you can sign up for. For example, the Business Partnership Scheme run by Lattitude has placed ex volunteers with the following companies - Accenture, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Marsh.

5. Enjoy

Once you have researched, budgeted, and fundraised to get yourself there, make sure you enjoy it! A gap year will provide you with new skills, new memories and new friends and is an amazing opportunity.

From England to Ecuador – Ezim’s Story

In a word, Yunguilla is amazing. I would not change my placement for a city one if i were given the opportunity. In Yunguilla we get to do a bit of everything at the moment. Monday, Wednesday and Friday we work in the school in the morning and Tuesday and Thursday we just get to take part in whatever project we are interested in or are really needed in around the village... so far, this has seen us making cheese, making jam, working on farms and helping build houses, paint the school etc...It is an absolutely indescribable experience.

Everyday you wake up and walking to school or to eat you don’t go by anyone without being greeted in someway. At school, the kids are decent...they are kids in the class and you have to make sure to step into the teacher role or they will walk over you, but in the playground at break times, they come up to you and just talk to you and enjoy your company, it is priceless. On these school days we work from about 8:30 am to 12:30... eat lunch and then from 3-6 continue working and then on most days that is it. Some days some people turn up for classes from 7-8 but these days that doesn't happen very often.

In the evening we are often free and we may just be too tired to do anything and go to bed or we may go to the village shop and chill out talking to our friends.

The best thing about Yunguilla is that it is Yunguilla, it is cloud forest, you get involved in everything, you get invited to village meetings that are really about things about the community and things that have nothing to do with you but you get involved in and asked your opinion about (sometimes), you get a completely different experience to city life and it isn’t uncomfortable or anything... it is all the good things about leaving city life behind.

The sour points is that sometimes you just don't know what to expect you aren’t always given sufficient notice and you do get a few surprises. This doesn’t happen always but it is sometime to be aware of so you can roll with it when it happens. This isn’t really a sour point, as something fun always seems to turn up when these unexpected things happen.

I would like to thank Latttitude for the invaluable support they gave that allowed me to go to Yunguilla. For the Yunguillans, being able to learn English raises grades amongst the college kids and trains Yunguilla’s tourism personnel in English, enabling them to provide a better service for the large number of English speaking tourists that come to Yunguilla. Without Latttitude volunteers, to learn English, these Yunguillans would have to go into the city and pay to take English classes. The cost of all this makes learning English in this way inaccessible to most Yunguillans.

For me, your support allowed me to experience Yunguilla. This experience is something, I believe, will stay with me all my life. Finding my feet in Yunguilla and the other places I went to in my six months away has given me a new self-confidence and a passion for travelling and languages. Knowing that I can go to a country with a foreign language and a foreign culture and have such a good time has completely opened up the world for me.

How do I “go” about it?

Here is a list of companies who offer gap year programmes:

• Real Gap
• Gap Advice
• Gap Year Programs
• Gap Work
• iGapyear
• Raleigh
• Global Vision International
  
• VSO
• V volunteer
• Year in Industry
• Global Student Experience
• Intrepid
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Worldwide Volunteering
• Go Gap Year
• STA Travel 

Taking a gap year to gain work experience

If you are looking to spend your gap year working, why not visit our work experience page where you will find advice on how to go about finding work experience.