BBC Learnings · Section 9

Why take a gap year

Now Georgina, I know you went to university to study for a degree, but before you moved from college to university,

Level: B2 · 121 sentences

Transcript

Now Georgina, I know you went to university to study for a degree,
but before you moved from college to university,
did you take a year off?
I did. Well... You are not alone.
Many students choose to take a break from their studies to travel
or gain work experience before moving on to university.
Yes, and this is what we call a gap year.
And in this programme, we're talking about taking a gap year
and why doing this has become more important than ever.
But first, as always, I need to challenge you
and our listeners, Georgina, to answer a question.
Are you ready? Ready and waiting, Neil.
According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies,
which subject studied at university will lead
to the highest average earnings five years after graduating?
Is it a law, b veterinary science or c medicine and dentistry?
What do you think, Georgina?
Well, all are subjects that involve lots
of studying but as a guess...
I think those studying veterinary science end up working
as vets and earning the most money.
So it's B, I think. OK.
Well, we'll find out if you're right
at the end of the programme.
Let's get back to talking about gap years.
As the name suggests, it's a break
or gap in between your studies.
We might also call it a year out.
It's not a new concept, meaning idea,
and there are a number of reasons
why someone may choose to take one.
That's right. The BBC's Smart Consumer podcast looked
at this and heard from two students.
One Meg took a gap year and the other Tom didn't.
Let's hear from them now.
I knew I wanted to go to university
but I decided I'll do it a year out
and that way I can wait until I get
my official results and apply to university
with those rather than getting predicted grades
and then potentially being surprised and not
being able to follow the path that I wanted.
I just always had in the back of my mind
that I'd spend a year doing something
productive and something that would just be good fun.
It's not something that I really knew about, to be honest,
I think, until I started university.
And it was just a bit
of an alien concept to me.
It was something I never thought about.
It would have been far too expensive and it's not
something that I would have been able to rely
on my parents or family members for.
Two different experiences there.
So Meg said that she had, in the back of my mind...
doing a gap year.
That means she had the idea
but didn't think about it frequently.
It was stored deep in her memory.
And she had the idea of doing something productive.
That means leading to a good or useful outcome
and of course having fun at the same time.
She also wanted to do something while she waited
for her exam results to come in, rather than applying
for a university place based on predicted results,
which may turn out to be wrong.
If something is predicted, it's an estimation
of what is likely to happen
in the future based on current information.
Now, Tom had a different experience.
He wasn't really aware of the gap year
and described it as an alien concept –
so an idea that is strange and not familiar.
Tom also mentioned a gap year would have been too expensive.
But according to Chris Rea from the organisation Prospects,
it needn't cost a lot of money.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme,
he says it's about gaining skills and being more employable.
I think the experience of the gap here has become
actually much more practical, partly, as I say,
to do with university participation increasing,
but also because of the demands
on developing skills, specifically employability skills.
Actually, from an employer's point of view,
certainly any form of experience and skills
acquisition that you've undertaken is valuable.
According to Chris Rea, the focus these days
is for a gap year to be more practical.
This adjective describes the learning of real skills
which can be usefully applied.
Yes, and these are skills that help you compete
for a place at university and ultimately make you more employable.
They help you get a job.
Right, but which job might earn you the most money, Georgina?
Earlier I asked you, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies,
which subject studied at university will lead
to the highest average earnings five years after graduating?
Is it a law, b veterinary science or c medicine and dentistry?
What did you say, Georgina? I said veterinary science.
Was I correct? Sadly, you weren't.
The correct answer is c medicine and dentistry.
According to research in the UK,
graduates of medicine and dentistry earn an average of £46,700.
That's more than an English teacher, I suspect,
but that's not going to stop us recapping today's vocabulary.
OK, so we've been talking about a gap year –
that's a year between leaving school
and starting university that is usually spent travelling or working.
When we say something is at the back of my mind,
we mean an idea we don't think about frequently
but keep stored deep in our memory.
And when something is productive, it describes something
that leads to a good or useful outcome.
Next, we mention the word predicted.
If something is predicted, it's an estimation
of what is likely to happen
in the future based on current information.
An alien concept is an idea that is strange, not familiar.
And when you're doing something practical,
you're doing something that is real and useful because you
learn skills that can be used in the future.