MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR GAP YEAR 'FUTURE - PROOF' YOURSELF TO
ACHIEVE YOUR DESIRED AMBITIONS FOR THE “CLASS OF 2018”.
High school is behind you. Now onto bigger and better. Either by design or
by unfortunate circumstances, school leavers often consider a gap year as an
alternative. By design, it affords you time to carefully consider your next
career steps before you invest your time and money in further tertiary
education. By circumstance, you may not have achieved a bachelors pass or been
unable to find a place in a traditional tertiary institution of your choosing.
Why take a gap year?
• Unable to achieve the required results to enrol in your tertiary institution
or course of choice and plan on rewriting subjects to fulfil these needs.
• You are undecided on what you really want to do.
• You want to work part-time or full-time.
• You still need to secure more funding for fees and housing.
• You reside too far from the mainstream tertiary institutions, with
insufficient funding for accommodation and transport.
• You want to explore and volunteer in other interests to ensure you are more
mature before entering a formal higher education institution.
• You want to ensure you are “future-proof” with essential business skills to enter the workplace.
• You want to avoid being one of the “too” many first-year drop-out statistics.
• You missed an enrolment deadline.
What are the risks?
• Getting into bad habits – very often school leavers who step off the academic
treadmill struggle to get back into healthy study habits.
• Getting left behind – There is the chance your peers will have a head-start
in their quest to enter the formal work sector.
• Most parents fear that you won’t go back.
What can you do to make the most of your GAP year? So, if by design or
circumstance, do not get discouraged and strive to become the best possible
version of yourself. THINK FORWARD!
• Create your own personal structured plan – it is not about sitting on the
couch and playing video games.
• Seek out work or volunteer opportunities – part-time or full-time. This will
allow you to experience different industries and environments and gain valuable
life skills and management skills that can put you head and shoulders above
those with no work experience.
• Embark on an entrepreneurial endeavour.
• Invest your time and money in generic adult learning skills that will give
you a higher-level qualification. There are many credible distance learning
institutions that offer affordable and accessible learning solutions. Avoid the
“fly-by-night” operators. Beware of bogus institutions.
THE GOOD NEWS
If you are planning a gap year, and require flexibility to enrol during
2019, the FPD Higher Certificate in Management is a programme that is ideally
suited to Gap Year school-leavers. It anticipates and solves the problem that
recruiters find when they look to hire graduates further down-the-line, citing
the lack of business and management understanding as a major hurdle when youth
enter the formal sector.
More on why recruiters look for business skills coming soon.
President Ramaphosa has consistently endorsed this and urges 2018 school
leavers to consider alternative learning solutions with business skills as a
priority for future youth employment.
To find out more about the FPD Business School Higher Certificate in
Management CLICK HERE
©Copyright January 2019 FPD Business School