Assessing the benefits of a gap year
- Summary
- Introduction
- Rising gap year participation
- The development of soft skills
- Benefits to employers
- Accreditation
- Reference
Summary
Gap year participation has continued to increase amongst young people before, during and immediately after university. In this article, Dr Andrew Jones from Birkbeck, University of London discusses the implications of his research into the gap year phenomenon. Drawing on a study carried out for the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) and current research into overseas volunteering projects, he assesses the benefits that well-planned and structured gap years can have for graduate skills and employability. Key findings include:
- gap year participation has increased year on year since the early 1990s amongst those taking undergraduate and postgraduates degrees;
- initial evidence suggests this is likely to continue despite the advent of top-up fees;
- gap years cover a wide range of activities and certain activities are far more beneficial to long-term education and employment success;
- structured work placements (paid or voluntary) taken during a gap year can have significant benefits in terms of developing participants ‘soft skills’: interpersonal, organisational and communication skills;
- employers highly value certain kinds of gap year experiences and the skills developed can be a key strength on graduate CVs.
Introduction
In recent years there has been a major growth in ‘gap year’ participation. Conventionally, the idea of the gap year has referred to a break in study taken by (normally) eighteen-year-olds between school and university. However, the term is now used to refer to a much wider group, both in terms of age and in terms of what the ‘break’ is from. In the report for DfES [1], after much deliberation, I developed a much broader definition to encapsulate the diversity of people aged 16-25 taking gap ‘years’: ‘a period of time out from education, training or employment of between three and 24 months’. Yet the evidence suggests that the university-related gap year remains one of the most important in numerical terms and the ongoing research into this type of gap year suggests that certain activities can be extremely beneficial in educational and career terms.
This article examines the evidence for rising participation in university-related gap years and assesses the range of benefits that participants gain from gap year experiences, in particular focusing on the advantages of undertaking some kind of structured placement as part of the gap year experience. It also looks at the issues surrounding accreditation of such schemes.
Rising gap year participation
In 2004, over 30,000 applicants to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) deferred entry. However, this headline figure is likely to represent only a fraction of the number of those who take a gap year between school and university. Initial evidence suggests that up to as many young people again do not apply to UCAS whilst still at school and apply to university during their gap year. In addition, it is difficult to quantify the numbers of graduates who take a gap year during or immediately after their degree. Evidence from the gap year industry and travel providers suggests that increasing numbers of graduates are choosing to take a gap year rather than immediate entry into the workplace. There are also a smaller, but significant number, who take a ‘mid-degree’ gap year, either by taking a break in study or through more formal segments of their degree programmes. Those taking a year abroad with modern language degrees, for example, often only have six months of formal study and spend the rest of the time engaged in activities akin to those taking longer gap years.
My current research indicates that this increase in university-related gap years is likely to continue, despite the advent of top-up fees. In contrast to the stereotypes often portrayed in the wider media, the existing evidence strongly suggests that gap years are far from the preserve of upper-middle-class individuals from private schools. There is growing participation amongst young people from all backgrounds and the research suggests that most of those undertake paid work to meet most of the cost of taking a gap year.
The development of soft skills
In preparing the review of gap year activity for DfES, little existing research came to light as to exactly what benefits young people gained from undertaking gap years in general. Whilst most organisations and some universities admissions tutors had expressed anecdotal support for the wide range of benefits they perceived gap year participants as accruing, much centred on generalised statements of ‘greater maturity’ and improved ‘life skills’. These benefits were associated more with activities that involved work, whether that was paid or voluntary.
The issue of benefits has thus become the focus of the current research. The emerging argument is that certain kinds of gap year activities, undertaken as a significant component of the overall gap year, can greatly enhance a young person’s skill base. However, there are a huge range of potential activities that are undertaken as a part of a gap year. I developed a stylised model for the broad types of activity that were identified - shown in Figure 1. Of course, not all of these activities promote skill development, and some skills tend to be more relevant to future education or employment success than others. For example, many young people do engage in formal training during their gap year with common vocational qualifications including sports instructor (skiing, diving, rock-climbing) and teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) qualifications. Whilst the acquisition of the specific dedicated skills is beneficial, in the longer term it is the development of so-called ‘soft skills’ that the research identified as being most likely to be important to future educational and employment success.
Figure 1: Options in choosing gap year activities
The DfES review identified initial research that suggested paid or volunteering work activities exposed young people to experiences that enhanced a range of soft skills. These are primarily interpersonal, leadership, communication, time management and organisational skills. In this context, the current research has been following groups of young people through their gap years in a ‘before, during and after’ study of how the various experiences they undertake are beneficial. These cohorts of ‘gappers’ are all participating in structured volunteering projects overseas with a major gap year provider organisation as a significant component of their gap year. However, the study is also assessing the impact of other component activities - backpacking and independent travel as well as low-skill work in the UK - that also form the rest of their gap year.
The evidence suggests that these volunteering placements are promoting the development of ‘soft skills’ amongst the pre-university ‘gappers’. Almost all of the 200 or so I have interviewed (twice, at this stage) emphasise how the voluntary work experience has improved their confidence and sense of maturity. When explored in depth this has arisen from the day-to-day exposure to new and often difficult social and workplace environments that these young people have not previously experienced. For example, many related accounts of having to learn to ‘get on with people’ and experiencing ‘having a boss’ for the first time.
Two groups I have followed in depth worked voluntarily as teaching assistants in Tanzania and Vietnam. Quite quickly after arriving in their placements, these young people were dealing with classes of teenagers and having to stand up and speak (and often teach). Many reported feeling much more able and comfortable speaking to new people, to large groups and dealing with difficult social situations. They also had to help plan and organise lessons on a day-to-day basis as well as work unsocial hours when tired and discipline unruly children.
Overall, the findings of the current project reinforce the initial conclusions of the DfES review: that structured (or at least pre-organised) paid or voluntary work placements offer the participants the opportunity to substantially develop a range of soft skills. This does not mean that gappers spend their whole gap year in such schemes, but simply that as a component of a gap year these kinds of activities are extremely valuable.
Benefits to employers
The current research has also found that many graduate employers have a good understanding of the benefits that a ‘value-adding’ gap year offers. I interviewed several human resources staff who emphasised the advantages that a candidate has if their gap year has built these soft skills. In a graduate recruitment market where more and more applicants have degrees (and an increasing proportion have second class ones), structured gap year work placements mark out potential recruits who are likely to have the wide range of soft skills that employers want but which they do not feel universities teach adequately.
Employers, thus, are able to recruit young people who have experience of workplace environments, of dealing with people in a working environment and who have communication and organisational skills to deal with professional occupations. Many graduate-level jobs require these skills in equal measure with academic ability but formal qualifications do not give employers much indication of an applicant's ability in these areas. Employers also benefit from new recruits who, to quote one HR director, have ‘been out of their comfort zones’ and are thus more likely to have the flexibility and improvisation skills to deal with the demands of the graduate workplace.
Accreditation
A final emerging issue in the gap year sector is that of accreditation. The research I have carried out into the gap year providing sector found a large number of small organisations offering a wide variety of placements. This makes any general form of gap year accreditation scheme difficult for participants. The DfES review recommended that accreditation schemes should be developed, but around specific programmes as it was not appropriate at the gap year sector-wide scale. Subsequently, there is growing evidence of moves by some of the larger providers to align their structured volunteering schemes, both in the UK and overseas, with schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award. In that sense, the gap year sector itself is beginning to promote accreditation that will enable the easier identification of the kinds of structured placements that are most beneficial in terms of enhancing soft skills.
Reference
1. Review of Gap Year Provision, A M Jones, Department for Education and Skills, 2004.
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