What is Your Child Going To Do During Thier Gap Year

[BettiG]

Hi all,

What is your child going to do during their gap year?
My daughter is taking a gap year. She wants to wait to see what grades she gets before going to any open days for Uni which I think makes sense.
She is looking at getting some casual work over summer although struggling to find anything at the moment. Also looking to do volunteering work. Basically getting some experience and earning some money to take to uni.

My ds hasn’t applied as he really doesn’t know what he wants to apply for! After hearing his siblings complain about uni, says he doesn’t really want to go!
So he’s pulling shifts as a lifeguard at our local leisure centre and pulling the odd pint inbetween washing up and peeling onions and potatoes in the local pub! When he’s home I’m making sure he’s mowing the lawn and catching up on the jobs that need doing around the house to earn his keep.
He also volunteers at our local dementia care home, 2 hrs a week, that’s quite easy to organise but does take a little time
The other volunteering which is quite nice to do is reading with the children in schools, a friends dd did, and it led to a paid TA position for her for a year.
She needs to print off copies of her cv, and go round everywhere in person asking is they have anything available. That’s how my son got the pub job. Good luck

My DD did an Art Foundation diploma. As part of it she did a months work experience through the Turing scheme in Lisbon (so all paid for). Once she got her grades she had decided to change direction away from a creative degree, but that's one of the benefits of taking time out to decide what you really want to do.

DS had an unexpected gap year. He'd already done some volunteering in a shop during sixth form so started off working for B&M which he hated but turned out was very motivating.

He then got a job in a coffee shop and ended up doing around 50 hours a week.

He had a complete change in direction too and is now studying but not the course he'd been set on from a young age.

And yes, applying with grades in hand was so, so much easier but that might also be partly due to the change in direction.

@BettiG would your DD be interested in applying through clearing?

No she definitely wants a gap year to work and save for uni and have some fun first. Our son did the same and managed to save a fair bit to take to uni with him.