Great Gap Year Hunt

Little_Miss_Penny_Less

Hi all,

Never used these personally, but have heard good things about them... same kind of idea as WWOOF, but I think in more countries...

http://helpexchange.net/index.asp

Hope it helps somebody...

Penny

strangel

Im not a student (in 36) but looking to take a career break, any good ideas or sites 4 me???

Sally_Young

INSURANCE

As an over-protective mum of a gap year student, any ideas about insurance for a 22 year old who will be working mainly on Turkey?
Ta

laneontour

I quit my job to travel... if you have the adventurous spirit and the time, don't book any trips - just take a bus or train from London to wherever you like, make sure you have the correct visas to cover you for the next few months and just GO. I headed East with a one-way bus ticket to Krakow, Poland (£50). The adventure took me through the Baltics, across Russia and onwards through Mongolia, China, Tibet..... and on and on and on. By going overland you see so much more and it's so much cheaper. The Trans Siberian is as cheap as anything if you book yourself - rather than paying the travel agents. You can organise your own visa easily if you know how (just read the Trans Siberian Handbook) and that goes for anywhere in the world.

A great way of SAVING MONEY that you didn't even know you would be spending, is by averting scams. There are SO many of them, so be wise. A great money saving tip is to pick up a copy of the board game, Can you make it as a BACKPACKER? It's a trial run around the world where you can learn from your mistakes before doing it for real. It's an epic race across six continents with your mates! Learn about scams and how to avoid them, learn how quickly your money disappears and how to budget and also take some tips on places to go. It's quite literally the Board Game for Backpackers.
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laneontour

strangel wrote:

Im not a student (in 36) but looking to take a career break, any good ideas or sites 4 me???

Try:
https://www.careerbreaksite.co.uk
https://www.canyoumakeit.co.uk
https://www.gapyear.com

competitionscafe

strangel wrote:

Im not a student (in 36) but looking to take a career break, any good ideas or sites 4 me???

http://www.gapyearforgrownups.co.uk/

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,26019-2227704_2,00.html

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/whs/go.asp?isbn=1854583182&shop=26985

http://www.hospitalityclub.org/

tik33

I am a (long time) returned volunteer from an organisation called Project Trust

https://www.projecttrust.org.uk

I spent a year living with an Indonesian family. It was the most instructive year of my life and changed my attitude to life. When you live in a 3rd world country being paid like a 3rd world worker, you really, really appreciate the stuff that we tend to take for granted over here. At 18, you are young enough that people will take you under their wing and you have the opportunity to learn so much more than if you are travelling. I have done my fair share of travelling through countries, it doesn't even come close to the kind of experience that you get by living with local families and imbibing the local culture.

Yes, you have to raise money (it was £2500 when I did it and that was a while ago), but it's about raising it through sponsorship - not necessarily working. I did various charity events, applied for grants spoke to parents of friends and friends of parents.

It's not about 'value for money' or whether or not that was a 'rip-off' it's about a unique opportunity for kids of 18 to see the world in a different light - to take advantage of the fact that they are grown up but not yet quite grown up.

You go for 12 months and you're not allowed to leave the country. But there are excellent support people based in the countries that they send the kids to and should bad things happen (I became very ill, for instance) those support people are amazing.

Not all kids are up to it and Project Trust have a rigorous selection process to make sure that they can cope - but if you or your child is at all interested - I cannot recommend highly enough.

Everest

This post may not be in the spirit of seeking adventure abroad, nor will it guarantee you a piercing or dreadlocks, but it worked really well for me (in my opinion).

When I left school I went to work for Arthur Andersen for a year on their gap year scholarship. This was 8 months of paid work in their UK head office. The work was demanding and the learning curve, particularly for an 18 year old, fresh-faced and just out of secondary education molly-coddling. However, it provided me with great additions to my CV, money (I think it was something like £16k pro rated - not a huge amount but enough to get by on) plus they gave us a travel bursary to do whatever we wanted with in the three months before uni started.

Unfortunately, while at Andersen the whole Enron episode kicked off and the firm went down the tube. The UK part of the firm, however was taken over by Deloitte who continued the scheme. During uni I therefore had a minimum four weeks paid work experience a year (more if I wanted) plus a scholarship paid at the beginning of each academic year (£1,000). I have left university with no debt.

This scheme isn't going to be to everyone's liking and it's tough to get a place on, but as a gap year experience I don't think many other work placements can match it. I gained so much from it, as I know other people certainly will and do. The opportunity to go travelling afterwards is also fantastic...beats working behind a bar for a similar amount of time to earn enough to go away, and looks so much better on the CV. I'd recommend it to anyone!

Everest

Neglected to mention that the website is: http://scholars.deloitte.co.uk/index.cfm?p_id=2 if any school leavers / parents of school leavers are interested.

markhide

Hi all,

the threads on gap year have been very interesting.

I run a company that trains young people about to head off on their gap year. We mainly talk about personal safety, attitude, cultural awareness and such like but we also discuss money and how to deal with it before during and after travel.

We explore the pros and cons of independent travel vs using an exped or gap year company. How much all these things cost, how to check them out and how to ensure you get value for money.

As an aside we also spend a fair amount of time stealing from the participants as often as we can - this gets them in to the mindset that nothing is safe while travelling - we obviously give it all back at the end of the one or three days.

We love what we do and get fab feedback from those who attend. As a money saving offer - as I know you all like a bargain - I'm happy to offer a 20% discount for anyone that books a one or three day course. Simpy mention this site when you book.

Those atteding a course can also get a discount on world travel insurance.

Our website has a mass of useful hints and tips about gap year planning and safety. It can be found at https://www.planetwise.net

Cheers

Mark