Features: Using your summer

Once the last lectures are delivered and the final assignments are handed in then the summer begins. While this usually signals beach holidays, festivals and long lazy days it can also be a good time to improve your skills. Prospects looks at ways to make the most of your time.

It’s possible to pack so much into the three-month break as long as you do your research and plan. You could be football coaching children at Camp America or honing your writing skills with a journalism internship in Ghana.

Volunteering

‘Summer is a great time of year to discover the benefits of volunteering, the weather is at its best, exams are over and the long summer break stretches ahead of you,’ says Kimberley Rowley from Volunteering England.

Before considering jetting off to far flung destinations it’s worth looking closer to home. For example, children’s play scheme projects are up and running during the summer months. It’s also the nicest time of the year to help out at your local park or wildlife sanctuary.

Kimberley points out that ‘lots of summer festivals need volunteers to act as stewards and guides. The upside of this is that you will get a free ticket and be able to enjoy the festival in your spare time. Try contacting Oxfam to search for stewarding opportunities'.

If you would like to volunteer a bit further afield but are put off by the cost, try doing a simple internet search on an area you would like to visit. This can often bring up some local projects, such as animal sanctuaries or orphanages that would be glad of some extra help.

'Visit Volunteering England's website to find your nearest Volunteer Centre or visit www.do-it.org.uk to look for oportunites online,' advises Kimberley.

Get experience

In a competitive jobs market work experience has been named as one of the factors that could help you land a job, and a summer internship is a great way of getting experience.

‘Internships offer students a great opportunity to gain experience, a head start and make informed career decisions. They offer hands on experience which is ideal for CVs,’ says Sarah Shillingford, Graduate Recruitment Partner at Deloitte.

Deloitte offers a seven week summer vacation scheme giving students in their penultimate year of university a chance to work in their Audit, Tax or Consulting service lines.

‘The programme exposes participants to clients and client work and encourages them to contribute solutions to every-day client problems. The scheme also allows the students to make a more informed career choice,’ says Sarah.

Internships can be difficult to get, but even a day’s work shadowing or working more hours at your part-time job can help demonstrate those all important employability skills such as team working and motivation.

Teaching

It's never too late to pick up some new skills and taking the time to make additions to your CV could benefit you in the long term. One option is to take a teaching English as a foreign lanaguage (TEFL) course which will help you explore options here and abroad. Many reputable course providers such as i-to-i will help teach you the basics.

Andrew Precious, from i-to-i, said, ‘teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is one of the most exciting and rewarding ways of experiencing new cultures first hand. You’ll get to immerse yourself in a way of life that tourists can only dream of, whilst earning cold hard cash!'

All work and no play makes for a dull summer so while it’s a great time to improve your CV it’s also important to take some time out to relax after a year of hard work. Although with the unpredictability of the British weather it might be worth planning more indoor than outdoor activities.