As we announced last week, we are bringing on friends from our travel community to share the inside scoop on various aspects of travel. Continuing our Travel Tuesday series is Oliver from I Wish Gap Year Travel, in which every Tuesday he will answer your questions about gap year travel, focusing on Volunteering, Working & Learning Opportunities Abroad. All you have to do is leave a comment with your questions and check back here on the Sosauce Travel Geek blog to see what questions Oliver addresses.

Read below to see what topics of gap year travel Oliver tackles this week.

Our first question came from Harry who asked:

“So yeah I was wondering, like, what do I get from a Gap Year.
Is it like backpacking in Australia or Volunteering and stuff?
What do I get from it?”

I’ll take that as two separate questions and it gives me the opportunity to expand on a topic that I wanted to explain and that is “What Is A Gap Year?”

What Is A Gap Year?

Well a Gap Year means many things to many people and as such a true definition has become somewhat diluted.

Its roots can be traced back to the 1960s when people first went on the Hippy Trail and a Gap Year company called Project Trust was formed, with its first trip being to Addis Ababa. Then in the 70s desire for independent travel grew and specific Youth Travel agencies like STA Travel were formed. Lattitude Global Volunteering (then Gap Activity Projects and UK based) was formed to facilitate volunteering projects for those between college/school (18yrs) and university.

The Prince of Wales also helped to form (in the UK) what is now Raleigh International in the late 1970s and they provided the first ever ‘Gap Year Expeditions’ which followed in Francis Drakes footsteps.

What Do Gap Year Students Do?

Gap Year participants are known as ‘Gappers’. Some gappers spend their time working, and many combine these into either a working holiday, a structured work placement or internship abroad.

A popular option for gap year students, also known as “gappers,” is volunteering abroad. In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, a great number of the volunteers who helped in South Asia were on a gap year.

Many gap year students also earn money while overseas by working ‘cash in hand’, often in the hospitality industry. Another growing trend for gappers is to enroll in global education programs where they learn a new skill or qualification that can benefit their CV / Resume. These may combine or include language study, home stays, cultural immersion, learning to become a winter sports or water sports instructor, and independent study. Such experiential opportunities exist in many countries and from many providers all over the world. Although as this brief overview suggests, many are based in the UK.

So in theory a Gap Year is usually something experiential and independent to mass market holidays. It can involve backpacking but at the same time, at I Wish Travel we think of it as more along the lines of Volunteering, Working & Learning.

What Would I Get From It?

The simple answer is that it depends on what you choose for your Gap Year.

If you go on the backpacking trail through Asia, Australia & NZ then you have the opportunity to see and experience so much. On the flip side, getting drunk whilst tubing in Laos or a beach party in Fraser Island will give you some great memories, photo opportunities and lots of new friends.

But will you have learned much about the people, history and culture of a destination?

Volunteering gives you the opportunity to learn about a country, it’s people & culture. With volunteering projects most likely to take part in 2nd and 3rd World Countries, you’ll have an opportunity to learn about a country you may not normally have the opportunity to visit on a holiday or work placement. . . Not forgetting the help the local community will receive from you, the good you will do and the legacy you will leave through your efforts.

Working abroad offers you the opportunity to live in a country whilst working to generate funds, for further travel perhaps. An internship is likely to be more structured and as such offer specific training will enhance your experience and benefit you in the future. Different people and companies have differing standards and ways of working. You’ll have the chance to take the positives and experiences from this and apply them to your future career.

Learning opportunities abroad give you the chance to travel whilst learning a skill or developing a ‘hobby’. Living abroad allows immersion in the local culture, whilst enabling you to gain a skill which can be used in the future. It can also aid the development and learning process. You may not live in the warmest country and so learning to scuba dive may well be a lot harder and not quite the same experience. Whilst learning to dive in the Red Sea of Egypt will offer much better conditions and opportunities for diving.

The same goes for learning a language abroad. Whilst you may have the most amazing teacher at home, practicing outside of class at the local restaurant or with your family might not have the same benefits as doing so abroad. The opportunities to practice are greater abroad and with speaking to locals, your confidence will grow and you will find yourself enjoying a more enriched experience.



I hope that overview answers your initial questions about Gap Years. But I am sure there are more out there so leave your questions in the comments, and I will respond to them next week on the Sosauce Travel Geek blog for Travel Tuesday!



Travel Tuesday is a weekly Sosauce blog series fostering discussion about community interest topics, news, and announcements in the travel industry. Check here every Tuesday for the latest discussion posts and Ask Oliver I Wish Gap Year Travel column.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 12:35 PM and is filed under Travel Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.