Gap years abroad that don't cost the earth but aren't just bumming around

[lechatnoir]

Any suggestions for gap year abroad that will foster independence, work ethic & generally help a lazy & disinterested teenager grown up a bit! He's not 100% set on Uni & results may prevent this unless he seriously ups his game but is applying and all being well will be allowed to defer and make a final decision whether he wants to go during his year out.

His plan is to work post Year 13 for a few months then 'go travelling' but when pushed, there is no plan beyond have the summer off & get a bar job! Left to his own devices he could easily waste a year watching Tiktok and hanging out with his mates so I'm keen to try and help find something a bit more constructive that involves working or volunteering abroad and hopefully lead to some sort of independent travel.

We suggested he could use his Child Trust Fund (c.£1,2k) towards flights/VISA and will cover vaccinations and insurance but the rest will be down to him to pay for so realistically some sort of hosted working holiday would be ideal - sports related a bonus but anything considered. Any suggestions or thoughts from parents of DC that took a gap year? Have looked at a couple of firms that organise working holidays and still reeling from the prices!

I've seen this mentioned before which looks interesting: https://www.workaway.info/

Australia or New Zealand over our winter for bar/hospitality work (which typically pays better than it does here). Say November-April?

Couple of months of travel in and around those countries (won't be enough, but it's a start…)

10 weeks with Mark Warner/Nielsen end of June-early September. Doesn't pay very well but they get housed, clothed and fed and they have a ball because the vast majority of sports staff are English and between 18 and 22. As are the local staff behind the bar and waiting on tables, who are mostly at university and doing summer holiday work.

Bit of work, bit of travel, bit of fun 😀

The Real Gap Experience is a good place to start. DD did parts of her year with them interspersed with independent travel. Whaleshark conservation in Mozambique, Brick making for school projects in South Africa and Teaching English in Indonesia. She travelled round Oz/NZ and Asia.

She worked in a stable yard from the age of 14 at weekends and then in retail to save up for it. I don't believe in sending them on a fully paid holiday aka a gap year as won't teach them much.

Yes and agree with PP who suggested India. Me and (now) DH did south east Asia and it was an experience of a lifetime. We weren’t into partying, we were there for everything else.

My DS did an organised gap year experience with Operation Raleigh which he enjoyed but found too organised. A bit like a school trip.

Then he and a friend hired a campervan and drove around New Zealand sightseeing, interspersed with periods of work to fund themselves. As others have said, that was much more valuable than the organised trip and he was a different, much more mature person when he came home as a result of having to take responsibility and be completely independent.

As a result, we didn't bother with the organised gap year trips with other DC - they went backpacking in various parts of the world after working in the UK to raise the money. They all had a great time and from a parent's point of view I thoroughly recommend it.

Please do not do anything involving orphanages, it is incredibly damaging to the children and unethical. In fact most ‘gap year’ experiences sold by those companies are highly unethical.

I agree. They also take employment away from the local workforce, as well as inculcating a "white saviour" attitude in the students who buy these packages. (I recognise they're not all white: "rich, western saviour" might be a more appropriate phrase. The point is they instil an attitude that people in less advantaged countries are helpless and need smart western Europeans to come and rescue them.)

Camp America a good shout. When we were in whistler lots of commonwealth teens working in hotels and coffee shops. https://bunac.org/whistler-and-british-columbia
Does he need to go abroad. Maybe come up with an at home plan. So job, driving lessons, volunteer role, maybe a qualification like lifeguard. Then he could maybe travel a bit at end.