Is a gap year a good idea this year?

Yes, says Helena Pozniak, and there are ways to make it look good on a CV

Gap-year firms are bullish about 2022 – and if students can get both jabs in time, they might be able to travel as soon as this autumn. Thailand announced in June that it planned to open to fully vaccinated travellers by October, although its worsening Covid rate make this seem unlikely. Bookings for volunteering and long-haul travel are up already for next year, say bespoke student travel firms. Nevertheless, a fast-changing situation means students will have to be flexible if they want to travel abroad.

No one can blame you for wanting to let your hair down and have an uncomplicated good time, says Charlie Ball, graduate labour market expert for Prospects – but if you can gather useful skills along the way, it will help more than you know later in life. It’s too easy to waste a year when time stretches ahead.

And 18 is a good age to take time out, says Ball. “You may have more money later on, but if you’re developing a career, it becomes much harder to leave.” At present it also makes sense to delay graduation, he says, and give the job market a chance to reset after the pandemic.

Even this year a sliver of students snuck away to the likes of Costa Rica, Mexico and elsewhere in Central and South America, on a volunteering loophole, but had to spend more than £200 on testing for Covid and quarantine on return. By and large anyone who took a year out has been happy to have missed what turned out to be a pretty rubbish year at university. As uncertainty spills over into the next academic year, the same principle holds true.

If you’re wanting to defer a year after you’ve already applied, you’ll need to go to your university with a coherent plan for the year. Maths and physics departments like students to stay up to date with their subjects. But universities are generally supportive – they know young people with more life skills are less likely to drop out. It also gives you time to rethink a course you may have chosen prematurely.

In the meantime, hospitality and other casual jobs are picking up in the UK, even if more structured workexperience schemes have fallen by the wayside. You might even squirrel away extra cash to take to university, and stacking shelves and waiting tables will still impress employers down the line. “If you can show you turned up and got the job done, you’ve answered two major questions employers ask of graduate hires,” says Ball.

Stay-at-home gap years could still offer rich pickings, says seasoned careers adviser Susan Smith, who is in favour of a well-spent year out. “School leavers are not a finished product,” she says. “Education hasn’t taught them to pick up a phone, market themselves and be resilient.” Make your year ultra Cv-friendly by applying for a Level 3 apprenticeship at findapprenticeship. service.gov.uk and spend it acquiring practical skills in a creative sector, for instance – this will add useful feathers to your cap when you finally go to university the following September.

If you’re thinking of a gap year volunterring abroad, there’s a perception that these are only feasible for well-off students. Indeed, it costs more than £1,000 to teach English in Costa Rica for a month and even more to look after stray dogs in Sri Lanka. Volunteer programmes such as Operation Raleigh require serious fundraising and were put on hold during the pandemic, but may go ahead later. And travellers now have to factor in the cost of Covid insurance and testing on top of registration, visa and other health-check costs. But don’t be disheartened as there are ways you can volunteer abroad for less (try workaway.info and gvi.co.uk/gap-year).

Gap year can be a misnomer, says Will Jones, brand manager of travel agents Studentuniverse – you don’t have to go away for 12 months, and students often travel cheaply for shorter periods, having earned cash by living and working at home: “There’s no right or wrong way to spend it.”

There is, of course, a risk you might never return to studies, but most people at the end of a gap year are better prepared and raring to go. “Taking time to work out what you want after an intensive period of education is important to career success,” says Smith.

If you can gather useful skills along the way, it will help you more than you know later in life