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Taking a gap year abroad is a good way to improve skills and boost employability, according to a careers expert.
David Wray, deputy chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service, told the Financial Mail that volunteering at home or abroad can help gappers gain new skills, contacts and broaden their cultural experiences.
He added: "The main thing people need to consider is how time between education and a job can be used most wisely, to put them a step ahead of the competition."
So, while sipping beers in South East Asia for six months will not be enough to clinch a job offer, volunteering on some of volunteer travel specialist i-to-i’s 500 worthwhile projects around the world certainly might. This is because volunteering abroad can help develop the ‘soft skills’ that are so often missing from people’s CVs, such as teamwork, interpersonal skills, confidence, public speaking and organisational skills.
Gappers volunteering through i-to-i can boost their teamwork skills by helping out on building and conservation projects, everywhere from Costa Rica and Kenya to Vietnam and Honduras, where they’ll find themselves working with others to achieve something worthwhile. They can also see their interpersonal skills improving as they bridge cultural and language barriers to work with others on all kinds of volunteering projects all over the world.
Volunteers also have plenty of chances to hone their public speaking skills while teaching or showing members of the public around conservation projects. Plus, gappers find themselves improving their organisational skills even before they set off as they organise flights, vaccinations, visas and money for their trips.
As well as the ‘soft skills’ that gap year travellers can develop by volunteering, i-to-i also offer internships in journalism (in Honduras and Bangalore) and archaeology (in Peru), where people can develop specific skills to give their CVs a boost.
Sophie Cross, who did journalism experience on a newspaper in Honduras, said: “I got to gain work experience I could only dream of obtaining in England and in a fantastic, inspiring and comfortable setting!”
Those who want more information about any of i-to-i’s 500 trips should visit http://www.i-
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