Gap year ideas

[Wigeon]

DD, who is in year 13, has decided that she wants to do a gap year and apply for deferred entry for university when she submits her UCAS form this week.

She has been doing some research but doesn't know anyone who has done the kind of thing she wants to do, so is keen to get any recommendations for specific organisations.

Her thoughts are:

Live abroad for several months
Ideally not Western Europe but rest of Europe or the world (!) good.
Not Camp America
Work or volunteer, but not with animals

In terms of her skills and interests, she is a qualified swimming teacher. She is also very musical, can play the piano, another instrument and sing, and helps out with younger music students. She is planning on studying history and politics. She is open to the idea of TEFL.

I'm personally quite sceptical about "voluntourism" where privileged young white people land in a developing country and do something that isn't actually helpful or sustainable for local communities.

The rest of the year she'd plan to live at home and work locally to earn money to fund it all.

Any ideas, particularly of specific companies/organisations very welcome!

There aren't likely to be many TEFL roles open to her. Those tend to require degrees unless one is a citizen. But she could try what my DD is considering, and look into au pair positions in areas that interest her.

Is there anywhere she can legally work besides the UK without a visa? My DD is also considering a year in Canada, as we're dual citizens.

I think that all sounds fairly bog standard. Is there a reason she wants to take a gap year beyond traveling and having some fun? It doesn't sound like she is focused on achieving anything specific that will feed into either her chosen university subject or subsequent career.

She could work and save money (and get physically ready) to pay to do a fundraising challenge (Everest Base camp/Kilimanjaro at the more extreme side) for a local charity - our local hospice does this, but there is lots out there, and she could stay on to travel in the country afterwards.

Cruise ships if she’s musical?
No chance of a decent tefl job at 18 post brexit sorry.
Why not camp America? She’d be in demand with the swimming qual

Camp Canada if it’s USA she’s avoiding, swim teacher would be in demand.

Work at Disney through yumi jobs is popular.

Thanks for replies!

@Cakeandusername @AelinAG Re her being averse to Camp America - I think she's heard (on Tiktok?!) of stories of the workers having awful times sometimes. Not totally sure in what way.

@Piggypiggy89 She is doing a quite general humanities degree, so there's not obvious things to do for that (eg if you were planning on studying Spanish you might go to South America on a year out), and she has no idea what career she might want to do. I think she wants an adventure, wants to see a bit of the world, which seem like legitimate aims in themselves. It's so much harder to do that kind of thing when you have a job and rental commitment, and even harder if you are able to buy and have a mortgage.

Working holiday in Japan?

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack - think she'd potentially love that. There's an organisation called Jenza that seems to organise ski season jobs in Japan - any experience of them, or of any other organisations which can help organise that?

Could she get her lifeguarding qualification and apply for work that way? Does she speak any other languages?

Can she afford to cover her living costs while travelling or volunteering or is she hoping to be fed/ given accommodation in return?

It may be worth looking into Australia as I think they still have working visas for young adults and they hire seasonal farm workers, bar staff etc.

@AltitudeCheck - yes, I think she can do the lifeguarding qualification through her swimming pool chain, that's definitely an option.

She's doing A Level French but has really gone off it and seems quite anti going somewhere French-speaking, which is a shame!

She does have some savings (gifts from grandparents) which means she won't have to fund the whole thing, and she will work in the UK for some of it, but she also will probably need to either work abroad or have accommodation/food subsidised or provided.

Just had a chat to her and she's quite up for the idea of Australia - if anyone has good tips for that /organisation which help then do post!

Fair enough.

They can work in Whistler Canada either ski season or summer, lots of options inc hotel work and coffee shops. If you google there are various agencies. All the staff were young Brits or Aussies when we went in summer and a classmate of dd just been as part of his gap year.
My dd did camp America this year and enjoyed it will go back 2026. It’s important to pick a good fit my dc wanted all girls and not religious. They are there to work but she got free time each day and a day off a week.

I don't recommend the cruise route- it's worse than going into catering, very seedy, lots of drugs.

https://www.go-to.co/

Certainly worth exploring the lifeguard option, wages will be better than doing casual bar work et . Looks like different requirements for pool and beach www.seek.com.au/lifeguard-jobs

Does she like skiing? She could do a ski instructor course then work a season? They tend to start November time - qualify by Christmas then work winter season.

@Nothernwannabe - thank you. Do you (or your DC) have personal experience of this organisation? Website is a bit clunky...

Unfortunately she has only been skiing once, which she loved, but not anywhere near the skills to become an instructor! But maybe she'd love working in a ski resort in a non-ski role (eg hospitality) and skiing in her free time!

Neilsons / Mark Warner / Club la Santa with her swimming instructor qualification
(edit: I assumed she'd have a lifeguarding qual if she's a swim instructor, that would definitely be worthwhile getting, if nothing else for casual work at uni / holidays).

How self-sufficient is she? Does it need to be via a company or does she have the nous to figure things out for herself?

Is she at a state or private school? There are programmes that place school-leavers in independent/boarding schools around the world as assistants. Her swimming and music qualifications would make her a good candidate. She wouldn’t exactly be seeing the realities of the world, but they do have quite a lot of responsibility as well as fun!

We actually did a Neilson holiday once and I've suggested working with one of those companies to her - I reckon it's probably hard work but quite fun for all the staff. Definitely something for her to consider

@Wigeon oh i think they really enjoy it! Their summer 2026 vacancies are open now Homepage - Neilson Holidays

@DownThePubWithStevieNicks She's very keen to be independent and self-sufficient and so I think doing things solo, not through a company is certainly a possibility.

She's at a state school but that's a great idea about working abroad in a boarding school - do you know of any specific organisations that place young people in those roles? Assume individual schools also just have their own ads and you can apply direct but hard to look through 100s or 1000s of schools worldwide, given she would be happy to go to a wide range of countries.