It is common practice for some students to take a gap year between high school and university in order to do charitable work abroad in under developed countries. What are the advantages and disadvantages for young people of doing volunteer work?

It is not unusual that many

students

these days decide to

work

as volunteers in developing countries before their university life. I would argue that there are plenty of benefits

while

shortcomings should

also

be taken into consideration. One benefit of doing

volunteer

work

is that

students

could

Wrong verb form

can

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develop a set of skills of great value for their future careers. Working in different countries outside the academic institutions gives youngsters opportunities to tackle some problems which are hard to access in a school environment.

For instance

,

students

who

work

in a refugee camp need to interact with all walks of people with various cultural backgrounds.

This

means that their capability of communication could be enhanced and

this

ability could be quite crucial in many job positions. Working as a

volunteer

also

plays a vital role in fostering a sense of responsibility in the younger generation. When doing charitable

work

,

students

could

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realize that they need to shoulder the burden of taking care of others as there are people who are relying on them.

For instance

, when they

work

as assistants in a youth hostel, they are aware that they need to address lots of customers' needs in a timely manner to make it a better place to live

in

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.

This

means they begin to know how to be responsible for others and contribute to society.

On the other hand

, their experiences as volunteers could

also

hamper the development of their academic skills. Participating in a

volunteer

program means that hours which are previously prepared for study need to make way for their

work

during

this

gap year.

As a consequence

, they may forget the knowledge they gained during their high school years

while

their peers are using them to achieve academic success in their universities. Meanwhile, It requires them quite a long time to review

this

knowledge before starting their university life. To summarise, working as a

volunteer

has its own pros and cons and

students

should take it into careful consideration before arriving at a final decision.