Many young people choose to take a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel. The experience of non-academic life offers benefits to the individual when they return to education. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

Having the opportunity to

travel

or build

work

experience, is a choice that some students make when transitioning from high

school

to

university

. In my opinion, taking a

year

to focus on building experience through

travel

and

work

allows students to form skills that are not available to them from the educational facilities that they attend and will be of benefit

on

Suggestion

in

return to higher

education

. Both the benefits and drawbacks of spending time away from academia will be discussed in

this

essay. To spend a

year

travelling to other countries around the world and

work

for

Suggestion

of

experience allows students to build skills in independence, social intelligence and

work

ethic that cannot be learned in educational environments

such

as

school

. A secondary

school

in London implemented a pre-graduate scheme that encouraged students to

work

abroad before attending

university

. A follow-up in a longitudinal study, found that those who took part in the scheme had higher

university

grades than those who did not participate.

This

clearly shows the positive influence

work

and

travel

outside of

school

. Even though there is a possible link between working abroad and higher grades, some may argue that students who graduate high

school

have not yet reached a level of maturity to make well-informed decisions about pursuing higher

education

.

Therefore

, they believe that students are more likely to drop out if they chose to take a

year

to search for jobs or

travel

. A supportive study found that ten percent of students, who decide to take

break

Suggestion

breaks

to

travel

and

work

after secondary

education

, fail to return to

education

and attend

university

. Despite evidence showing a lack of return to higher

education

from, schemes to encourage students to apply to

university

can be used to improve application rates.

This

can coincide with pre-graduate gap

year

schemes, allowing students to focus on developing extracurricular skills can increase their chances of returning back to

education

and

being achieving

Suggestion

have achieved

has achieved

top exam grades.