Product Description

The definitive handbook for students wanting to make the most of a year off before further education. Your Gap Year is the essential book for all young people planning a gap year before continuing with their education. This up to date guide provides essential information on specialist Gap Year programmes available as well as the vast range of jobs and voluntary opportunities available to young people around the world. Catering to all possible desires for how to spend a year, there is detailed information on how to gain qualifications and skills from your gap year, or details on how to join an expedition if that s your preference. The guide includes a country by country guide to gap year opportunities and is illustrated with first hand accounts from travellers to show you what you can expect.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33385 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
Recommended reading. --The Guardian

Whether you want to work as an au pair in the Netherlands, with disadvantaged children in Romania, teach English in Japan or pick avocados in Israel, this is the book you need. Recommended. --Overseas Jobs Express

Provides a comprehensive guide to opportunities, sound assessment of the risks and rewards, and accounts from more than 100 young people who have already filled the gap year. --The Daily Telegraph

If you're advising anyone to consider further reading on this increasingly popular subject then you won't go far wrong with this Vacation Work release. --Euro Express Magazine

A wealth of information
--The Independent

From the Author
Preface

Your gap year is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don't waste it. As you approach the end of school or university, you will be bombarded with choices. Remember, this year out is your gap year, not your parents' or your friends', and you can create whatever combination of experiences you want. Most gap years comprise a medley of activities which complement one another; home and abroad, work and play, earning and spending, challenge and self-indulgence.

The rising popularity of gap years has prompted a dramatic increase in the number of programmes and schemes targeted at young people. The range of choices can be overwhelming: studying lemurs in Madagascar; teaching English to Burmese refugees; doing work experience with the BBC; spend¬ing the summer at an American summer camp; learning Spanish in Guatemala. Many gappers will simply want to go backpacking and this new edition includes a new section on how to maximise your travelling fun while keeping to a realistic budget.

The wealth of both mainstream and obscure options is canvassed in the pages that follow. The pos¬sibility of arranging a DIY gap year without the shelter of an umbrella organisation is also covered. From time to time a critical voice is raised in the press arguing that paying a company to arrange your gap year is exploitative. Sifting the responsible wheat from the profit-mongering chaff is no easy task when faced with the jumble of schemes vying for attention. Here you will find solid advice on how to avoid disappointment and rip-offs.

Over the years I have been in touch with hundreds of gap year students, including more than a hundred for this edition. Occasionally, a gap year story is particularly inspiring. When 18-year-old Matt Riddell first saw the school in Zambia where he was to spend the next three months, he felt like breaking down in tears because he had not been expecting to see such desolation. Since returning to his home in Portsmouth he has set up a fund for Nalituwe Basic School, raised more than £1,300 by doing a sponsored walk, and plans to return soon to oversee some repair work.

In reply to those who still feel some knee-jerk resistance to the idea of `interrupting' an education to take a year out, I would say that education consists of so much more than books and exams. Never mind the emotive prose about the life-changing or CV-enhancing experience of taking a gap year, the key benefits are to have a rest from studying, to see the world through fresh eyes, and most of all to have fun.

This book is brimming with inspiration, guidance and concrete advice for prospective gappers. The path to exciting and memorable gap year experiences may be smoother than you think.

Susan Griffith
Cambridge

From the Inside Flap
This is Your Gap Year. How will you spend it?

● Learn to surf in South Africa
● Bungee jump in New Zealand
● Accompany bush rangers in wildlife parks in Botswana
● Learn to be a snowboard, surfing or diving instructor
● Crew on yachts around the Med or the Caribbean
● Ride the outback as a jack or jillaroo in Australia
● Go to full moon parties on Ko Pha Ngan
● Protect loggerhead turtles in Greece
● Build walkways in the Costa Rican rainforest
● Teach English in Europe, India, Japan or China
● Study drama, art, cinema or cookery in Italy

Find out what these and many other gap years are really like inside...

Customer Reviews

How I planned my Gap Year
With so many different Gap Year books out there, I was completely confused, but this book is really helpful. With a section on planning that covered all the important stuff, such as: visas, passports, accommodation, money and tips on fundraising for the trip; with other sections on travelling, placements and a country-by-country guide this book covers everything. Even a complete list of gap year companies was in here, so I could contact them immediately. Thanks to this book I figured out where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do and how to do it!