[Closed] Gap year working abroad- Experiences please

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MadBillMcMad - Member

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Seems you and me are alone in this 😉

Sorry, I can't recommend any eco-jaunts, so not really answering the OP, but...
I don't have direct personal experience because I looked into doing similar when I went for a year out ten years ago, but I shied away from paying the price. It seems that [s]most[/s] a lot of environmental/nature conservation work abroad is a major moneyspinner for the companies running it. Not surprising when there are people lining up to pay for the privilege.
Has she considered the well-travelled route of getting a working holiday visa for Australia? You don't have to work in a bar in Sydney the whole time, drink your earnings and then have a quick two-week trip up the east coast before you leave (though that seems to be the experience of a lot of Brits!) I used a company called VisitOz who get people placements on cattle stations and farms - which was quite an eye-opening experience even if it didn't go tremendously well (I was a bit unlucky with the placement, I think). Might be worth a look, though it can be quite... agricultural. Still, you can actually earn money doing it if you can stick it out.
There's also with WWOOF scheme (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) which I heard a lot about but didn't try myself. OK so it's not going to be lemurs on Madagascar but it's something, and won't cost a hefty fee up front... you won't earn anything more than your bed & board either but there's permaculture (interestingly eco-friendly) and biodynamics (a bit fruit & nutty) to learn about.
Hope that helps!

bookmarks as well so you're not alone. We have the same thing coming up but daughter is interested in engineering/physics and I don't know how hard it is to get back up to speed on that stuff once you have taken a year out.

I did a year (or two) off some years after finishing uni and when I was looking if you wanted to work in anything related to popular conservation it was very expensive as you had to pay to help.
By that I mean if you want to be involved with animals etc. it will cost money because so many people want to do it.
If you want to be collecting water or soil samples from more inhospitable places then they will pay you (often as an internships). Both are needed for conservation but one is more crowd pleaseing.

Depending on what she wants to do at University it could be worth looking at the big mining companys for environmental internships in Africa/Aus/Asia/Latin America.

I did working Holiday in Australia with the three months agricultural/remote work to extend the visa and I would only recommend getting this visa for anyone if they actually plan to work for a significant amount of time. The visa (when I left) was one year working with 2 years in the country so you could work and travel. Most places wanted you for 3 months min as a commitment also moving around a lot sucks up all your money. You only get the option at this visa once and I saw many people come out on their gap year work for 3 weeks over 3 months party the rest and then go home when the money ran out which was a shame really as they never got to see outside of the hostel.

tell her not to do uni for a few years, get a bus and get really high.. 🙂 worked out good for me.

leffeboy - Member

bookmarks as well so you're not alone. We have the same thing coming up but daughter is interested in engineering/physics and I don't know how hard it is to get back up to speed on that stuff once you have taken a year out.

My son who is now at Warwick studying Mech Engineering looked at a year in industry but then for one reason or another decided not to. [url= http://http://www.etrust.org.uk/ ]Etrust[/url] Is the organisation he was looking at as he had experience of their engineering education scheme at school.
I know if you intend to study maths at university then they don't like you taking a year out due to the 'getting back up to speed'

I know if you intend to study maths at university then they don't like you taking a year out due to the 'getting back up to speed'

Wow! I didn't realise maths was such a fast moving field that you'd be out of date in a year. Sure it wasn't because they realised that after a gap year most youngsters would realise there were more interesting things to do with their life 😉

Coming from someone who has taken three gap years - one each decade - during my long and varied career, I'd say it's well worth it in the long run, especially the first one to get a bit of a broader view on life before the conveyor belt of school-university-career-kids takes over.

But, sorry OP that's a bit off topic, and even though I'm currently an environmental consultant in Australia I have to admit I've no idea how to go about a gap year placement in my field 🙁

Wow! I didn't realise maths was such a fast moving field that you'd be out of date in a year

Nope, not that. It's just that it can take a while to get up to speed with maths and then dropping it completely for a year might make it difficult to get going again. A bit like stopping riding at all for a year after building up for the previous 4 or 5.

I agree with the general concept though but it isn't really necessary either. I've take a couple of 'career breaks' and they have been brilliant.

tuffty - top info., thanks

leffeboy - Member

tuffty - top info., thanks

P.S. He's loving Warwick if that helps 🙂

Ok, me again - just had one thought...
If you're worried that companies that offer 'placements' are just out to exploit, but an 'unstructured' gap year might be a waste, then here's another option...

The Uni in Western Australia where I studied recently had a very active exchange program with Oz students going to U.S./Europe for a year of their course, and their students coming over here.

So she could enrol straight into Uni, but also have a year abroad, and experience another country, way of life, learning environment - and it all counts towards her degree!

Here's a link to the program where I studied, but I'm sure other Unis in Oz will have similar - [url= http://www.murdoch.edu.au/Future-students/International-students/Study-Abroad-and-Exchange/ ]Murdoch Exchange Program[/url]

I can't recommend any particular organisation either, sorry. I have known a few people do 3-month placements to gap years, but the 'nature conservation' type ones tend to be organised such that you pay your money for the organisation to give you a nice holiday in a nice location, and you get to do a bit of work with the species. Unlike maccyb's opinion, that the organisations are making a 'profit' from you, I see it from the opposite perspective. The student volunteers aren't able to offer any real skills in that environment. It is massively cheaper and better in the long run to educate and train up locals to do whatever conservation needs doing, than to train up an 18 year European for one year. So yes, in effect the gap year students on programmes specifically designed for gap years are paying for the organisation to organise lodging and an activity but they are using that money to pay for more long-term and locally focussed training and operations.

If your daughter is serious about getting into ecology, then I would recommend her start volunteering with organisations in the UK like RSPB, WWT, local nature reserves etc who should be able to train her up in counting and ringing (e.g. rodent surveys, bird surveying). She will meet people who may have links into industry/consultancies.

I would also still recommend taking time out before starting Uni if she fancies it; the people I knew who took a gap year were a lot more mature on starting Uni.

For maths / physics / engineering students, I also agree that organising placements during summer breaks or a year placement is a great way to get insight into industry. For the environmental sciences there are consultancies and research centres that offer plecements to undergraduates, but you have to be proactive in searching them out.

konagirl - Member

If your daughter is serious about getting into ecology, then I would recommend her start volunteering with organisations in the UK like RSPB, WWT, local nature reserves etc who should be able to train her up in counting and ringing (e.g. rodent surveys, bird surveying). She will meet people who may have links into industry/consultancies.

Thanks for that.
She already volunteers at our local wildlife trust and is is a member of the RSPB Phoenix Forum which seems to be opening a few interesting doors at the moment 🙂