Personal development, work experience, language studies, and an opportunity to explore world cultures through travel. With benefits like these, it’s no wonder the idea of taking a gap year is growing increasingly popular with students all over the world.

Nowadays many fresh high school graduates feel unsure to leave the security of the classroom and venture into the unknown. Here are our best reasons why a gap year is the answer to shed some light on this and to provide more than just an academic experience…

What is a Gap Year?

Gap years are a period of proactive travel designed to help students explore academic and career pursuits, improve language skills, gain new experiences, interact with people from other cultures and gain a deeper insight into achieving their goals. Gap year experiences involving some kind of work, language studies or volunteering abroad require more independence, self-sufficiency, and motivation than the average classroom setting.

Life experience

Your gap year will be filled with meeting new people, exploring different cultures, and other experiences you would never have had in your hometown. While it may feel a bit too different or difficult at times, these life situations will help you develop as a person, expand your knowledge, and teach you more about yourself.

Language skills

While taking a gap year abroad, you can learn a language, and it’s a great choice to maximize your time in another country by enrolling in a language school. With Spanish being the native language of more than 400 million people across 44 countries, it’s an easy choice! Not to mention Spain is appealing due to its rich cultural heritage, wonderful Mediterranean climate, and tasty cuisine.  

Global awareness

Gap year travel allows you to observe new ways of life and view the world from a different perspective. You will also have a chance to look at yourself, your nationality and your home country from a different point of view, being able to see it through the eyes of your new foreign friends and compare it with the country you visit.

Improve career opportunities

During your gap year you may decide to work as an intern or volunteer to help people in need. Either way, you will get valuable work experience abroad. Employers say the international experience that gap year students bring makes them more mature, helps them develop better people skills, and makes them stronger when problem-solving. International travel also proves to potential employers you are not afraid of the unfamiliar or taking on new challenges.

Gap year and finances

Lower income students may feel a major drawback that a gap year is too expensive, or that a shot at higher education is too valuable to put off for a year. That’s not always the case. A gap year would be even more beneficial to these students. If you go to college “blindly”, choosing a major you are not passionate about,  you may end up changing your major or transferring schools, which would just extend your college years and increase your student debt.

For more information on how you can join a gap year in Valencia, click here!