Gap Years- Enrich Yourself!

Planning a gap year? Taking a gap year unexpectedly? Either way, you need to find a way to spend your time wisely, and do something useful.

Firstly, understand why it is that you're taking this gap year. It will be a different reason for everyone, it may be a combination of reasons, but you will need to justify your gap year in some way, whether its a break before higher education, or whether its a break before employment. Will it be to take a break from education? Is it because you need more time to decide what course to do? Do you want to travel? Do you need to improve your grades? Do you need to do things to support you application to university? Do you need more time to decide whether or not university is the best next-step for you?

After you've worked out the reason you'll be taking a gap year, it will be easier to work out what it is you'll be doing in your gap year.

Will it be to take a break from education? 
-If you simply want a break after leaving sixthform or college before going to university, you will need to provide a reason for this in your personal statement. You will need to tell your university how your gap year  enriched you- how has it made you a better student? This might mean that you decide to get a part time job related to your undergraduate course, you get some work experience or you go travelling (not including travelling around the country sampling various freshers' weeks!)

Is it because you need more time to decide what course to do?
- Deciding what course to do can be very difficult, a lot of people I knew changed their minds 2 or 3 times before finally settling on a course. But it is a very important decision and you need to form it properly. In your gap year visit as many university open days as possible to find out how their courses differ from each other- visit even unis which you might not be interested in, you might change your mind. Prepare every question you can think of to ask about the courses, and when you get to the open day bombard the course tutor, and any students you can find with the questions, even if they seem silly or you think you know the answer, you may be surprised by a response completely different to what you had pre-empted.
Find out what careers the courses you are interested can lead to. As I keep stressing- university a bridge to get you to an end destination, do not forget to look beyond it!
Once you've found out about possible careers, try to get some work experience in that area so you can see if you would really be suited to it; that will make choosing a course much easier

 Do you want to travel?
- Travelling is a very popular thing to do, either after sixthform or after university. On applications, university often like students who have travelled for a period of time, and can show that it was an enriching experience for them. HOWEVER you have a very long summer before university, many young people do travelling in the two or three months they have straight after college or sixthform, find out about "inter-railing" as an alternative to 6 or 9 months away. On the other hand, a lot or companies run projects in third-world countries for young people to travel and give back to local communities, building schools or libraries for example. These companies often offer a support network and greater structure to your time away, instead of an independent experience, universities will be very impressed to know that you spent 9 months in India building a primary school.
Maybe you just want to travel for a change or scenery? To get away from the norm, or even to "find yourself" as corny as it sounds, but it is something which some people need to do. Again, as long as you can justify what you did whilst you were away go for it! Write a blog whilst you are away like my friend Raquel, who is volunteering in Thailand, to prove what you did.

 Do you need to improve your grades? 
-If you need to improve your grades because you didn't do as well as you hoped you would, and or you didn't get in to your chosen (or any) university, it can be hard to pick yourself back up, but you need to. Talk to your school or college and ask if you can repeat a year or resit some modules. It's a massive knock to your confidence, not to mention your ego when you have to sit in a class room or an exam hall with people a year younger than you, but will it matter when you get to the best uni you can be at? No.
If you can't go back to your school or college, as around at other schools or colleges to resit some exams

Do you need to do things to support you application to university? 
-If you know that by the end of the year you might not get the top grades, or the grades you need to get on to your uni course, defer your entry and find out what else you can do to support your application. Want to study veterinary science? Volunteer at a Vet's surgery or an animal shelter. Want to study journalism? Apply for a magazine internship.
Failing this, try to find other, 1 year college-based courses (which often come with a fee) which you can take in order to support your uni application and you can add to not only your personal statement, but your CV too (for that all-important career.) A lot of these courses will also boost your UCAS points as well.

Do you need more time to decide whether or not university is the best next-step for you?
-Thinking about maybe applying net year, or maybe go in to work now? Get a job. You will only know if you're ready for work and you've had enough of education if you have a job. You can apply for university when-ever

Whatever it is you decide to do in your gap year, make it worth while, make it something which will make you a more desirable student and a more enriched person. Don't spend a year at home watching re-runs of Friends on Comedy Central- don't do it.

Pass by University On The Way To Success

Pass by University On The Way To Success

September 2012 marked the beginning of the first educational year in which University tuition fees rose to a maximum of £9,000.  Whilst the average annual fee was £8,507 for 2012/2013, the Office for Fair Access predicts that 2013/2014 applicants are more likely to be paying £9,000 as 3 in 4 universities are set to charge the top figure.

The increase in tuition fees undoubtedly changed the plans of some school leavers as the total number of students who applied to study at University during the first year of the higher fees was almost 10% less than in the previous year.

How can it be that we live in a society lacking skilled professionals, yet we hinder the process of anyone gaining the necessary qualifications? Students are encouraged to go to University to better their chances of getting employment in their dream job, so why should attaining our dreams come at the cost of well over £27,000? Well now, it doesn’t have to.

Although it seems alien to some eighteen year-olds, there are alternatives to University which can still pave the way to a dream career. Whilst professions such as dentistry or medicine will require a degree, there is a plethora of other careers which do not, including accountancy, retail management and some law positions.  Choosing training for a specific career instead of University is an option relieving young people of the prospect of debt from extortionate tuition fees and student loans and shows dedication to a certain field of work.

In response to the increasing number of young people who are choosing not to go to University, many employers have started to provide apprenticeship schemes offering on-the-job training in over 1000 professions, in everything from plumbing to sales; an opportunity some employers see as just as beneficial as an undergraduate degree.

Lewis Taylor, aged 19, said: “I've started my job now instead of going uni. I've found it amazing so far-much better than I expected. It's giving me qualifications so I’m training and getting paid, which is a massive bonus. And I'm getting work experience, so in my opinion not going to university is the best decision I have ever made!”

University has traditionally been used as a bridge to get to an ultimate goal. However, today a significant amount of students admit to going to University without even a final career in mind. In such a way, young people choosing work or an apprenticeship after school instead of University could be three years superior on the career ladder to those of the same age who continued into higher education, as employers stress the need of a strong foundation of work experience in a specific field in contrast with class-based learning on a general subject.