Gap Years
i-to-i
www.i-to-i.com/gap-year
Global voluntary and paid work placements teaching English.
iGapYear
www.iGapYear.com
Gap year placements, projects and courses. Search hundreds of paid and voluntary projects, TEFL and sports courses all in one place. Cheapest travel, accommodation, insurance, destinations - a mouth-watering buffet of information.
Australia
www.australia.com/workingholiday/
If you're aged bewteen 18 and 34 and have a Working Holiday Visa, you can live and work in Australia for a year.
Aventure
www.aventure.co.uk
Mainly unpaid and teaching work but with opportunities for travel and safari in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and India.
BUNAC
www.bunac.org
Voluntary and paid work opportunities around the world.
Camp America
www.campamerica.co.uk
Not the Will and Grace appreciation society but the starting point to a vacation job in the states.
Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
www.csv.org.uk
Full-time and 'bitesize' weekend voluntary placements in the UK for people aged 16-35.
Gap Activity Projects
www.gap.org.uk
A not-for-profit charity with worldwide schemes for 17-25 year-olds. There's a bursary scheme (for struggles with cash), overseas reps (on hand with the kleenex) and a business partnership (to help you get a job when you get back.)
Gap Challenge
www.world-challenge.co.uk
Varied schemes for 6-25 year-olds, with everything from team building exercises to voluntary and paid placements.
Gapwork
www.gapwork.com
Find a working holiday abroad.
Gap-Year.com
www.gap-year.com
Good information on taking a year out.
Global Volunteer Network
www.volunteer.org.nz
A scheme that offers worldwide volunteer opportunities. Volunteers work with local communities in a variety of programs including teaching, medical relief and community development, and last between 4 weeks and 6 months.
Raleigh International
www.raleigh.org.uk
A charity-run scheme that gives young people the opportunity to go on 3-month expeditions all over the world for varied project work..
SMILE
www.smilengo.org
SMILE Society is a volunteer organization looking for people to help street kids in India. They have summer programmes for volunteers, if you fancy doing something worthy in your vacation.
Student Partnerships Worldwide
www.spw.org
Challenging and rewarding 4-9 month projects in developing countries.
Teaching & Projects Abroad
www.teaching-abroad.co.uk
Much more than teaching - journalism, conservation and medical work are on offer as overseas placements.
The Year in Industry
www.yini.org.uk
The Year in Industry is a national charity that finds work placements for gap-year students and undergrads. Placements are for 12 months, paid and relevant to your degree.
TravelWorks
www.travelworks.co.uk
Lists volunteer stays abroad.
Year Out Group
www.yearoutgroup.org
Helps plan your year out, info on voluntary work and structured work experience placements.
Volunteer Africa
www.volunteerafrica.org
Information on voluntary work in Africa.
VSO (Voluntary Service Organisation)
www.vso.org.uk
Perhaps known more for sending older professionals to placements overseas, VSO also do youth placement schemes for 18-25 year-olds, both in the UK and globally.
Worldwide Volunteering
www.worldwidevolunteering.org.uk
Has a comprehensive online database which details voluntary projects around the world - now free to use.
Living in the EU - Monetos
www.monetos.co.uk
The knitty-gritty of studying abroad can be very difficult to get your head around. Its one thing to order your EHIC, but finding out how doctors, bank accounts or local property rental laws work can be as tricky as a tricky thing. Monetos provides a good guide to these headaches...
European City Guides
www.euromost.info
Traveling abroad? Whether for study, pleasure or lucrative arms trafficking purposes, make sure you know about the place you're going to. This site has surprisingly detailed information about some obscure and interesting destinations as well as the big cities. Don’t be put off by the 1990's look...
RealGap
www.realgap.co.uk
This site is simple, easy and has a good range of gap year ideas as well as a good indication of what they might cost (travelling round Asia for a year - for example - aint free). Their ideas are all sorted by what you might want to do, so its great for inspiration.
Parcel to Go
www.parcel2go.com
Living in another country for a year is a fantastic experience that everyone should have the opportunity to do. However, choosing 20kg of your possessions that are important enough to take on the plane is both upsetting and futile. The peeps at Parcel2go let you have your cake and eat it by offering an international courier at student friendly prices, so you can take all of your shoes along for that year in Rome...
Last updated on: 22 March 2011