Travel after A Levels - Camp America? Kibbutz?

[sergeantmajor]

DS 18 is planning a summer trip after A Levels. He's considering Camp America or volunteering on a kibbutz for a couple of months. Has anyone / anyone's kids got recent experience of either? Anything you'd recommend or steer clear of?

To do Camp America you really do have to love working with kids and have some childcare experience. It’s the hardest job you’ll ever love - one day off a week, just a few hours off each day and the rest of the time you are working. It is the most rewarding job I have ever done but if you don’t go into it with eyes wide open you’ll have a shock (I have seven summers under my belt, four from when I was at university and three as a “grown up” where I worked in management and took my kids with me!)

If he is thinking about this summer then he will need to act pretty quickly. A lot of camps have already filled their international hire places for the summer and going through the process and getting a visa can take time. That said, if he is Jewish (I am guessing as he is considering working on a kibbutz too) then male Jewish counsellors are in high demand.

It’s not something you can expect to walk into without some kind of childcare experience or a skill in an area he could teach at camp though. Many camps also prefer their counsellors to be 19+ and have completed a year of university. Not all, but being 18 may limit the placements available to him. If he is looking for office, maintenance or kitchen work then less experience is needed.

Camp America is absolutely not a programme to consider if he’s simply interested in travelling. It’s a cultural exchange programme with the time for travel after your placement has ended.

If he decides to do something like that then I do honestly believe Camp America is the best agency to use. There are others who do it cheaper but I have had no end of problems when I have had to send international counsellors home (usually for drinking alcohol under age or illness) with other agencies. They have been around the longest and it’s just a very well oiled machine. As a mum it’s very reassuring to know that they are there if anything does go wrong.

I did work America with BUNAC when I was 19 and then the following year too. It was a great experience, they help you find a job and it doesn't have to be childcare related - the first year I operated rides in a theme park, and the second I worked on a campsite / caravan park. Both years I got free accomodation provided by my employer and got paid far more than my friends who did camp America. This allowed me to spend a few weeks travelling round at the end of the summer. The theme park was the best job - there were about 20 other British students there and we all lived together in shared housing, plus the park management used to arrange day trips out for us on our days off.
My experience was quite a while ago but BUNAC continue to run these same programs.

You cannot do any work in America under the BUNAC programmes unless you are a full time university student. You need to prove this to obtain your visa so an 18 year old waiting for their a-level results is not eligible.

Camp counsellor and au pair programmes are the only ones open to non university students under US visa rules

thanks for this - really useful

Re working in a Kiobbutz - the process looks (from my quick search!) a big more complicated than when I was younger. In those days there was a centre in Golders Green you went to and you were given a very real overview of what you might expect (I.e if you’d envisioned picking oranges in the sunshine while you picked up a tan, what you might actually get is shifts in a chicken farm!). There doesn’t seem to be any U.K. based representation anymore (apparently the numbers of people wanting to volunteer have fallen hugely) and only Norway has a local office in Europe. You can apply directly to a central office in Israel who would try and match up DS.

I think the talk we had back in the day was hugely useful about the reality of being a kibbutz volunteer -they definitely didn’t dress it up so if that’s something he’s seriously considering then probably worth highlighting to him! In the end I and one of the two friends who were planning to go didn’t (the situation in Israel was going through one of its occasional flare ups and our parents decided we weren’t going!) but the remaining friend who did go had a time he remembers very fondly (and he didn’t end up sweeping chicken poo either!).

A bit not big - grr!

Plenty of European options too. PGL etc.Does he have any useful qualifications- watersports, languages, first aid etc?
Ours worked with an organisation called CampSuisse from seventeen. They’d been as students but returned to work. Not all staff had been students. They have increased requirements now, I think but still opportunities for eighteen year olds, I imagine. Mine loved it.

And kiobbutz?! Obviously I shouldn’t post anything before the third cup of coffee!

Daughter did 22 different countries when she was 21 mostly by Interail or bus when they missed the train!, Dads Credit card as a back up, loved it I think she is up to 35 countries now, just plan it, plan it again plan back up, good mobile roaming package.

What about working for Eurocamp or one of the other operators? I worked in campsites in France while at University. The money's not great (but a lot more than the Kibbutz). They pay for travel, you've no rent or bills to pay. It's a great way of improving your language and it's brilliant fun! Every week on my day off I would go exploring a different local town. I then went travelling around France and Spain at the end of the season. Fantastic memories!

Some really good ideas here, I'll get googling. (Of course ds should be doing it himself, but that's another story!). I'd prefer a European camp to an American one in some ways because it feels easier to escape home if he hates it, but ds has never been to the States before so it has a certain allure.
It seems that kibbutz ain't what it apparently used to be @SJaneS48, so he'd have to find his way to the agency office in Tel Aviv and wait for a position to come up. Not great for advance planning, but I suppose it's all in the spirit of adventure.
It's an awkward in-between age, when you're too young for holidays with parents but not quite ready (in his case) for just taking off somewhere with a passport.
Thanks everyone.

Why not look at something like Raleigh International? Perfect way of travelling, doing something worthy, but being looked after the whole time.