More school leavers are taking gap years — here’s how to not waste them

Only one in 10 chose this route in 2000 and less than one in 20 in 1974, the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth study reveals.

“I like the idea of a gap year,” Hender Consulting lead consultant Andrew Sullivan says.

“It gives people the opportunity to experience travel or learn some new skills they didn’t have previously.

“If you’ve worked so hard for such a long period of time you can have a break and revitalise.”

The recruiter, who personally spent five months in the UK and backpacking with a friend after finishing high school, says a gap year is not likely to be interpreted negatively by an employer.

“I wouldn’t say ‘geez that person had 12 months off, they have no motivation’, I would say ‘this person has recharged their batteries and are ready to go’,” he says.

“It comes down to the individual being able to explain what they did during that period.

“What happened? What did you learn? What skills put you in good stead for the future?”

Here are some positive ways to spend a gap year:

Working

Despite the popular image of gap years being a time to party and see the world, the 2014 On Track survey of Victorian school leavers finds 80.5 per cent who defer tertiary study spend their time working.

The most common occupations for school leavers who go straight into work after graduating are sales assistants and storespersons (41.2 per cent of females, 31.4 per cent of males) and jobs in food, hospitality and tourism (32 per cent of females, 24 per cent of males).

Coles general manager HR supermarket operations Lisa Geyer says retail is a fast-paced, dynamic environment with lots of opportunity to progress — a great option for a gap year.

“Working in customer service can help a young person develop important skills, such as communication and interpersonal skills, and team work to help kickstart their career,” she says.

Hospitality Institute of Australasia chief executive Brendan Power says there has been a large spike in people signing up to be certified for Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) in the past month, as the end of the school year approaches.

“Normally we would see a jump of about 30 per cent in the October-November period,” he says.

“This year we have experienced a 60 per cent increase in October alone.

“Most people realise they need to get their RSA if they want to work in a licensed establishment just as it is the law to get your Responsible Service of Gambling (RSG) if you are looking to work in a gaming area.”

After a couple of false starts at university, Mitchell Langford decided to take a gap year working in hospitality before committing to fulltime study.

He completed his RSA and RSG certifications with HIA and also works part time as a DJ at Our Place in Fortitude Valley.

“I’m keen to pick up work in the bar as well so I’m looking at getting more qualifications such as the beer and wine knowledge qualifications,” he says.

Cafes are another common employer of deferrers.

HG Coffee School director Peter Giannakis says Australia is known internationally for its coffee.

“When Australians travel abroad and people see they can make coffee, they are really well received,” he says.

A basic barista course can take three hours but to be competent with several machines and make a really good coffee, a six-hour course is recommended.

Ron Ho, 21, was studying restaurant management at Le Cordon Bleu when he decided to take a gap year part-way through to work as a barista and save money to finish his study.

“The important thing is to make good coffee and further than that, for it to also look good,” he says.

Other occupational groups employing high numbers of school leavers are labourers and factory and machine workers (11.5 per cent of males), clerks and receptionists (6.5 per cent of females) and building and construction (6.2 per cent of males).

Career trial

Business mentor Terri Billington says a gap year spent correctly can be used by school leavers to decide if their dream career is really for them.

“I highly recommend year 12 students sitting exams opt for a year of entry-level work positions in the industry that interests them, in order to work out if it’s what they really want to do,” she says.

“If they’re thinking of becoming a lawyer go get an admin position in a law firm to get a real feel for the work environment. Or if they want to get a job in the media try and get employed as the receptionist and they’ll know in the first month if this is where they want to work.”

She says students need to be led by their personality traits and passions.

“Regardless of your skills — if you don’t have the personality for a particular job then it’s not going to make you happy,” she says.

“I’m not talking about work experience, I’m talking about really immersing yourself in the work culture of your preferred career choice.

“Too many school leavers today don’t have any idea of what they want to do and often choose a university degree based on what subjects they were good at in school or what mum and dad advise them to do.”

Billington says an ideas person suits innovative careers in architecture, design, art or running workshops.

Meanwhile a people person would be better in sales, marketing or management; a senses person would work in roles that require work to be seen through to completion such as customer service or project management; and a details person, who often prefers to work alone, would be suited to bookkeeping, accounting or improving systems.

Volunteering

A gap year can be the ideal time to take a holiday before being committed to study or fulltime work but a trip away can also boost employability.

There are lots of travel packages incorporating volunteering such as working with animals, building homes in third world countries, or teaching children to speak English.

The On Track survey finds 72.3 per cent of respondents who deferred studies did so because they wanted other experiences, such as travel, before continuing their education.

Of the 4.6 per cent who are not in the labour force or further education, 55 per cent deferred specifically to travel.

Sullivan says volunteering, in general, is a common gap year activity.

“Volunteering is a big one people get involved in — whether that be hands-on doing something such as Meals on Wheels or sitting on a board or committee from a strategic point of view,” he says.

“Some people go off and do things overseas in a volunteering capacity.

“It provides a range of skills you can apply down the track.”

Read more employment news in the CareerOne section of Saturday’s News Corp Australia metropolitan newspapers.

Source: News Limited, Melanie Burgess, 4^th December 2015