Gap Year Jobs – Cooler Than Your Average Career!

Rugby coaching in Australia? Teaching English in Thailand? Sounds like pretty cool ways to spend a year out right? Well they’re great if you love sport, or you always wanted to visit the Far East, but there are plenty of other cool and unusual gap year jobs out there. If you’re looking for something a little different, here are some of the coolest ways to spend your year out, while earning a bit of money and beefing up your CV.

Some gap year jobs are the ones that dreams are made of: if your idea of heaven is more cold than cool as you whizz down the ski slopes, then you could find yourself a gap year job as a ski instructor. Obviously, you need to get your instruction qualifications first, but once you’ve done that you’ve got an amazing seasonal job with paid accommodation and 500 or so a month or so in the way of salary.

If you fancy yourself as a writer and you’re planning on going away for your gap year, it could be that you might be tempted to write about it – or even have an ongoing blog going… but why give that away for free? Travel writing is a tough nut to crack. Not surprising, really, because there are very few people who don’t want to be paid to jet off to glamorous locations. You’d be better off searching online for web sites and print publications who are not only looking for writers but also willing to pay them. You’re the one forking out for your trip, so from their point of view you’re the ideal roving reporter because they don’t have to pay your travel expenses. It’s also a cool way of breaking into travel writing.

If you’d rather enjoy your gap year for the experience, rather than having something interesting to read in your CV – or earning yourself heaps of money – how about fruit picking in Australia? It may sound a little bizarre, but many people on gap years travel to Australia and make their way around the continent working on fruit farms. If you’re looking for glamour, then you probably won’t find it there but with such a great sense of community and camaraderie amongst all the fruit pickers, whether they’re on their gap year or doing it professionally, you’ll certainly have a lot of fun.

You might think picking fruit Down Under is an unusual way of spending your gap year, but it’s by no means the most unusual: if you’re planning on visiting India, there’s always the possibility of being cast as an extra in a Bollywood movie. If you’re aiming for the Caribbean, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get a job as a pirate but there’s always the option of working as a steward on a cruise ship… or even, if you’re really lucky, on a private yacht. Now, how cool would that be?

Not Going to Uni helps young people with their career by showing jobs and training that exist outside of university. Maybe you are looking for an apprenticeship? At notgoingtouni.co.uk you’ll find information on sponsored degrees, gap years, apprenticeships and more than 300 videos on distance learning.