Gap years could be going out of fashion as tuition fees rise and job prospects for graduates fall. I went straight to uni from high school as did everyone else I knew from school and those I met at university. Anyone who took a gap year was suspected of not getting in to university and needing to re-sit their exams.
I’m sure my mum wouldn’t have let me go on a gap year like the ones I heard of in subsequent years… a school building trip to Nepal, a road and dam building project in some African nation – she would have looked at me like I was daft and knowing my mischievous mother she would have offered me a gap year in Pakistan with my crazy relatives, no thanks, or even worse she would want to come with me as a chaperone!
Gap years weren’t as big back then as they became but I wonder, did they really provide an edge to a graduate’s CV? I’m not sure that they show skills and other traits better than a plain old summer job in Britain where you wouldn’t have to sponge-wash yourself in melted snow and had access to a telephone. Perhaps the companies that will lose out on the questionable fees from gap year customers could offer their services to anyone who wants a sabbatical from their regular life but can’t be bothered organising it themselves.
Bubbly
