Gap Year News Articles

Will A Level Results Crunch Boost Gap Years?

17 August 2011

As over 300,000 of young people await their A level results this Thursday there is a growing debate about what they will do if they fail to secure a University place. UCAS Clearing have only 40,000 places available and there may not be enough places to go around. Taking a gap year may be one of the options for students who fail to secure a place this year. The increase in tuition fees has meant that 14,000 less students have deferred their university place this year but thousands may be forced to take an unplanned gap year if they do not get the results they needed to secure their place. A debate on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning focused on the CV boosting benefits of taking an orgaised gap year placement. Sam Cox, Managing Director of Real Gap, cited a recent survey of 500 UK employers that revealed 42% of employers consider
non-academic experience is more valuable now than 10 years ago. 85% of surveyed employers said that non-academic experience reflected a young candidate's potential as an employee.