Singing sensation Kate Nash is most famous for her anecdotal musical sounds and urban singing voice. She is, however, notable for a quite different reason.
Harrow-born Kate found fame when taking a gap year from education, after leaving school with a BTEC in theatre.
Unsure where her acting career was headed, the singer-songwriter took a year out and embarked on a series of odd jobs.
However, during this period of contemplation Kate began to write and perform music, fast becoming one of the most successful MySpace artists. Before her gap year was up, she had found herself with a hit single, Foundations, and a high-flying album.
According to Greenwich University, taking a gap year is something many people do to “broaden their horizons and experiences” before they go to university, and it can help their chance of getting jobs in the long-run.
Dr Margaret Noble, pro-vice chancellor of Greenwich University, said: “I think many students take a gap year to broaden their horizons and experiences and some students use it to provide financial backing, but it’s very much up to the individual.”
She added that her university has seen many students who have taken gap years and noted that it seems to have “very much enriched their experience” of life.
Furthermore, research by gapyear.com has found that employers and recruitment agencies are increasingly taking applicants’ gap year experience into consideration in combination with their grades.
Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, told the Independent newspaper earlier this month that graduate recruiters are increasingly complaining that it is difficult to pick between applicants, as they have such similar CVs.
A year out, he said, is a way for graduates to set themselves apart from the crowd, especially in competitive professions, such as medicine, veterinary science and law.
If a candidate spends their year out constructively, doing volunteer work for example, it demonstrates that they have knowledge of an employment environment.
Furthermore, if they can use their 12 months off doing something related to the profession they want to work in at a later date then that is ever better.
“The global economy has little time for academics. Hungry, motivated graduates full of life skills – most notably initiative, communication and decision making skills – are the gold we employers now mine for,” Mr Griffiths concluded.
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