Surbiton High School hosts Mini Gap Year Fair - 23/04/2010

Three Gap Year providers spoke to Year 12 about opportunities for spending a productive year prior to starting university studies. Georgia and Michael, currently on the Deloitte Scholars scheme, outlined the benefits of paid employment that leads to ongoing work placements through university and potentially graduate employment with the firm (Accenture, Bank of England and KPMG run similar schemes). Julia, who represents "The Year Industry", spoke about her work on Corporate Responsibility and how with the YINI Combo there are opportunities to go abroad on a project at the end of your placement with YINI. Anissa Ladjemi, from World Wide Volunteering, gave an inspiring talk about volunteering opportunities across the world. She talked about her placements in Brazil and Romania and encouraged students to start volunteering in their local community and consider a year out on a placement. Anissa offered to assist girls to source volunteering opportunities from the comprehensive database of opportunities at WWV. All in all an inspiring session at a time when employers are keen to see the skills students have developed and a year-on-year growth in the uptake of gap year opportunities (currently 8% of school leavers do a gap year).