Is a gap year valuable to employers?

world travel 150Gap years seen as a waste of time by many but do employers look favourably on those that have taken one?

More than half of bosses say a gap year is as important, if not more important than a degree when trying to select graduates. This is according to a survey of 250 UK managers, where only 44 per cent said a degree is more important than ‘swanning off’ on a year abroad, whilst 7 per cent believe that this gap year is held in higher regard than a university degree when used on a CV.

With the new tuition fees coming in, are many students going to be able to afford the cost of a gap year when they have the burden of £40k plus debt from university to deal with. Most could look at it as cheaper than university, with gap years costing an average of £5k plus, gap years cost nothing compared to a year at university. Sadly due to the tuition fee rises, many students have cut short their travelling to try and get a university place. This has left one in three out of a place for 2011-2012.

The experience of travelling is valuable (depending on how you spend your time), engaging in volunteering work or teaching then employers value this very highly.

During this current climate, its not surprising that record numbers have taken a gap year to wait for the job market to pick up, with over 90,000 graduates out of work after graduating then it is obvious that these students go working abroad before coming back to find their graduate job.

Share and Connect

                                        

 What are these?

Follow, connect, link to us

Follow on Twitter

Follow Pareto on Twitter

Link to us

Connect with Pareto on LinkedIn

Read our Blogg

Read our recruitment blog

Connect with us

Read our recruitment blog

 

[Search]