Thinking About A Gap Year? Try Working With Animals!

Every year more and more people spend a year between school and university travelling or working

. But finding a way to combine the two can give you the opportunity for a unique experience to see new and fascinating places, while also learning valuable transferable skills that could help you later on your course or in your job. A program working with animals might be the perfect coming together of work experience and adventure, offering the chance to encounter wholly new landscapes and people - all while gaining a more global perspective.

Adventures with Unusual and Exciting Projects

Deciding to embark on a gap year abroad can lead you to many different locations and, if you choose a program working with animals, you could end up in some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, helping with interesting and important conservation projects. If you're not sure where you'd like to go, perhaps a good place to start would be to think about a field that you'd like to gain experience in or a subject that you're enthusiastic about. This could lead you towards a meaningful project that will allow you to explore your passions. Depending on your interests, there are many high quality programs that will give you experience doing what you love. For example, if you're dedicated to ocean conservation, the ORCA Marine Foundation offers volunteer placements working on marine awareness campaigns and research surveys on coastal related issues; and The Great White Shark Project will give its volunteers experience in direct, hands-on research, tracking sharks and collating research data near the Dyer and Geyser Islands off the coast of South Africa. Not only are there many practical and worthwhile projects out there, but many of them will offer once-in-a-lifetime chances to have adventures working with animals - like cage-diving with sharks or tagging large marine wildlife.

Gaining Valuable Transferable Skills

"Transferable skills" is a term that employers use when evaluating what position an applicant may fill based on past educational, extra-curricular, and work-based experience. They generally include teamworking, problem-solving, communication, leadership, and other skills which you may gain in one place then bring to your new position as a valuable asset. When picking a gap year program, stay away from projects that do not offer challenges that would lead to strong transferable skills, and look for ventures with diverse daily programs and a variety of projects to choose from. Often, volunteer organisations offering positions working with animals have a variety of tasks that require the development of the kind of expertise that employers search for. Working as part of a team, a wildlife conservation project abroad shows not only your ability to communicate, compromise, and potentially act as a leader, but it also could demonstrate your awareness of global ecological issues in a scientific conservation or data-gathering context. Having experience working abroad on an interesting scientific or conservation project shows your capacity to deal with problems that effect areas outside your own neighbourhood, and potentially your ability to understand impact assessment on a more global level. You will work as part of an international team and bring new perspectives to your studies or work.

by: Mark Bottell

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