Gaps year programmes for timid teens

[Trumpetoftheswan2]

DD will go into Y13 in September. Up till now, she's been certain that she'll go to university next year, although is now talking about a gap year.

I think this is a good idea. She's always been quite shy and fearful, which was made worse by bullying in Y9, which the school handled appallingly. She moved schools and stayed in there for sixth form as she was too scared to go anywhere else. For various reasons, she has a very limited social life and I think she'd benefit lots from just getting a job in a shop or cafe and being out there in the world, having to interact with people and deal with new situations and so on.

DD has always been a 'look before you leap' type person, gets easily overwhelmed and needs time to decompress. She's not very independent, not least because of the ease of being able to contact me eg if she's getting a train by herself, she'll call me to ask what to do rather than just having to figure it out for herself as I did at her age.

She's been looking at some of the gap year guided holiday sites, which led her on to gap year work sites. Has anyone's dc done one of these?

Any other suggestions or experiences?

TIA

Given what you say is aiming more locally likely to be more of a success.
So job in a cafe, volunteering eg charity shop or brownies. Other goals like learning to drive.

If that goes well then she could look at something like camp America before going to Uni.

Thanks, yes I agree that staying local to earn money would be a good idea. She has an idea that she'd like to travel a bit, but has no-one to travel with, hence looking at gap year possibilities eg organised tours for a month or so specifically for gap year students.

I wondered if working abroad for a short time rather than just 'travelling' would be easier in some ways ie having something to do.

We're in London, so learning to drive not essential enough for me to pay for, but it would be a good goal for her to save up for herself, thanks for that.

Not quite the same but my daughter used G Adventures this summer for solo-travel (she’s 19, has just done 1st year uni). She did one of their tours in Asia (about a month long) – I think the group was 19 people – mostly made up of other solo travellers. She was slightly apprehensive, but absolutely loved it. She said it was amazing (and hasn't stopped talking about it since she got home, now choosing where she wants to go next summer). They have lots of activities / trips which you can dip into / out of as you wish. She stayed on beyond the end of the tour and travelled by herself (with new-found friends for part of it) for another few weeks. Would she look at something like that perhaps once she'd done some local work to build confidence / earn money? I think there is another company, Gap 360, which might be better for work abroad but can't vouch for that.

Thanks - that's very helpful.