[MAK]

My daughter did not take a gap year after school but now she has served her 3 years at Uni' she tells me that she will take a gap year and spend a good chunk of it with me in France. Whilst I think she deserves a break before trying to start a long working life I wonder how potential employers may look upon a post grad gap year.
Anyone any experience of this - also - anyone got a job for a graduate (Leeds Uni) of Environmental Sustainability?

[Bionic]

MAK,
When I was recruiting I saw quite a lot of students. At one stage I would have questioned what they had been doing for a year but now it just seems to be the accepted thing that they will have a year 'out' whether that be in between or at the end of their studies. Of course it does help if they are able to give a good story to the recruiters i.e. they had been doing some charity work, they were improving their skills in .......
Personally I don't think its anything to worry about especially as jobs are so hard to come by at the moment.
Sally

[Fleecewife]

I would think that with her particular degree in environmental sustainability, a stay with you on your smallholding would be seen as part of her gaining relevant experience.  If she could also make visits to environmental projects around the world that would give her some very relevant experience and insight.  Just don't call it a gap year 

[MAK]

Thanks Sally, Good to hear that and i agree if she can give a good account of her gap year and turn it into a positive thing with new experiences or skils then it may actually help her in the job market.

[Fowgill Farm]

It all depends what she does with her year. if she spends its doing bugger all in particular future employers will look upon it dimly however if she uses it to gain experience in the field she wants to evenyually work in or she does say voluntary overseas work (sunbathing in your back garden don't count!) they will take her as having life experience and get up and go etc.
We talked our niece out of having a gap year like two of her friends and subsequently she has a teaching job and they despite having degrees are both collecting benefits!
On the plus side you'll get to spend some time with her but who's going to keep her for a year!?
Lots of things to consider.
Mandy 
ps what the feck is environmental sustainability when its at home do they mean make do and mend?

[Dan]

It's what Mandy says - a gap year can mean so many different things, all the way from becoming an expert in daytime TV and the alcoholic content of beverages, to gaining experience and making sure that the job you might spend the rest of your life doing is absolutely the right thing for you (or maybe discovering that you want to do something entirely different).

She might keep a diary or a blog of the experience, which could be included on applications? Being able to demonstrate that it was a positive year will go a long way with a lot of employers...

[Ina]

And spending lots of time in France she'll be improving her language skills... (Or not?)

[jaykay]

It is, of course, how it is sold.

Improving her language skills, broadening her cultural horizons, getting some real life experience after university before starting work, adding to her ability to relate to many different groups of people, volunteering on a 'paysan' smallholding (no need to explain that the 'paysan' is her dad 

It could both be, and sound, very attractive 

[MAK]

Thanks everyone - some good comments and advice. If she keeps a diary or blog as Dan suggests then she will have a good reference to evidence of a productive year.
You may recall her asking TAS members to complete a survey re: wonkey vegetables. She tested the hypothesis that the public do not object to irregular veg that is out-croped and wasted despite the environmental and financial cost of production. Crops that are discarded required water, fertiliser and energy to plant,grow,harvest and sort - so chucking it away becuase it is the wrong shape is not clever. Her course included many other elements covered by various faculties ( economics, politics, geography and basic sciences).
Cattle and Timber are the key industries here and in the backround of EDF using many hydroelectric plants and some nuclear plants to generate electric. We are all encouraged to burn wood !! So I may get her cutting trees and splitting logs  . this should give her an insight into sustainable energy use.- if she sells some of my wonkey veg on the market then that will help her pay her way with us.
   

[Sylvia]

I might fancy a gap year myself, I've never had one

[SallyintNorth]

I might fancy a gap year myself, I've never had one

I had a 'grown up gap year', mainly WWOOFing and doing other volunteering related to smallholding / crafty things, to find out more about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Abso-bloomin-lutely priceless.

[SallyintNorth]

I might fancy a gap year myself, I've never had one

I had a 'grown up gap year', mainly WWOOFing and doing other volunteering related to smallholding / crafty things, to find out more about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Abso-bloomin-lutely priceless.

Mind, I'm pretty much unemployable now 

[Anke]

Of course everyone assumes that you (dad) would want her back living with you.... ,
 
I had the most miserable two months of my life living again at home in-between finishing my undergraduate degree and starting the postgraduate one... so much so that I offered my supervisor to come to Scotland earlier and work in the lab without any grant/payment... just after living away from home for 7 years from the age of 16 on I just could not get on with my father at all and also could not relate to any of of my former friends from school anymore.... a new start in a new country was exactly what was needed.
 
As a parent I would also try and think of an alternative solutoin, in case it won't work out....

[MAK]

Sorry to hear that Anke.
Fortunateley we get on very well indeed but if she needs a change from me then she can get back to Cambridge in about 2.5 hours for 8 Euros     
I have asked some people at the Swiss Institute if they she can help them on a lab based project that they are doing and she has looked at WWOOF with some Dutch people who seem heavily into sustainability -so she may not be in our pockets the full year.
Not sure that she would thank me if I arranged some time on a kibbutz on the West bank though.

[Lesley Silvester]

Sounds like she's got her head screwed on.