Careers Lesson Plans / KS4 - Gap Years - 4 lessons / Gap Years Lesson Plan 1 - What is a Gap Year?

Connect the Learning

Remind students of their current status and that they need to start thinking about future choices after school and what they would like to do.

The Big Picture

The work to be undertaken will explore what a gap year means, what people can do and whether it would be something that would interest them at some point in their life

Learning Outcomes

- Students appreciate the wider meaning of the term gap year.
- Students appreciate what people do on a gap year.
- Students appreciate that a structured gap year could be beneficial to future careers.
- Students develop an opinion on whether a gap year is appropriate for them.

Introduction

Write gap year onto the whiteboard. Ask students to come up with words that sum up what they think a gap year is. Ask them where their thoughts have come from. Is it the media, family, friends, the government, universities, employers?

As a stimulus, you could cut out some media coverage from newspapers for students to get ideas from.

Ask students to work in pairs and come up with a description of their own of what a gap year means to them.

Give the definition from DfES.

A gap year is defined as “any period of time between 3 and 24 months which an individual takes ‘out’ of formal education, training or the workplace, and where the time out sits in the context of a longer career trajectory.’’

Review of Gap Year Provision Andrew Jones DfES

Does it reflect any of the thoughts the group has had? Do they think it is a good description?