Working your gap year

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Traditionally associated with public schoolies and too much money, the gap year is no longer the preserve of the privileged elite. Especially when the exam board deliberately marks down your A levels and leaves you in the lurch with your first choice uni.

So what to do?

Given that most students finish uni in mountains of debt, preceding it with a round-the-world travel and spending spree might not seem the brightest idea. But you can still strike out for sunnier climes by taking a working holiday.

Alternatively, you can do a bank job and go on the run. But we wouldn’t recommend it.

What sort of things can you do? There’s always the grape-picking, tree-planting, mind-numbingly tedious menial option popular in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal that will give you enough wedge to live on, but not enough to actually have any fun.

One lucrative option is to teach English in Europe or the Far East, as long as you can front the start-up cash (around £700 - £1000) to get the TEFL, TESOL or CELTA that most language schools demand. But be warned: some countries, like Japan and Korea won’t give you a work visa unless you have a degree already.

They do some fantastic bogus degree certificates in Thailand. You didn’t hear that here either.

Then there’s the grand old US of A thing, courtesy of BUNAC or Camp America, wherein you look after kids with perfect teeth for a few weeks, before getting fired and using the additional time on your visa to travel the States.

Or how about a kibbutz? Israel is very, very dodgy at the moment, so demand will be low. That said, because you are “transient” the hardcore kibbutzers will give you all the bad jobs to do.

Sporty types can have a tilt at a ski season, or if you’d rather go somewhere hot you’ll need to be blindingly good at a minimum of one water sport. You’ll get a lovely tan, but the pay (again) is lousy and the de rigeur pair of Oakleys will set you back about £130.

And if you’re keen to see some of the dodgier parts of the planet while doing some good, you can volunteer for charity work overseas, allowing you to cover such delightful venues as Angola and Afghanistan.

Whatever you end up doing, it’s likely to involve bad pay, worse accommodation and horrible jobs, BUT you’ll have some great times, better stories and fantastic experiences. So no matter how difficult / expensive / intimidating it may seem, it will be worth all the effort once you’re rolling.

And that has to be better than a year stacking shelves in the Co-op in Willesden.