By Jo Flood

Do you dream of taking a gap year? Teaching football in Brazil, rebuilding the tsunami damage in Sri Lanka, teaching English in India? Well so do I, but the fact is, for me at least, it ain't going to happen any time soon.

When I realised that I wasn't about to be packing my bags and flying off somewhere exotic, I began to question why I wanted to do it in the first place. Well, a change of scenery in some entirely different part of the world, with options to travel and meet other people, would be the main draw. But apart from that, isn't it about doing something you wouldn't normally do in your everyday life, and helping other people? 

So I decided that charity begins at home and all that, and took a look at what do-it.org.uk had to offer. You can walk people's dogs or do their shopping; you can work in victim support; you can join a team that helps visually impaired people go on pub crawls. My favourite idea was to help out in a monkey sanctuary, but sadly it was in Cornwall  - still, who needs to go to Africa?

Experience counts

The great thing about these opportunities is that they look fantastic on your CV or university applications as well, especially if you want to go into a field where experience really counts. If you want to work in web design, you could get brilliant experience designing a website for a charity; or if you think you might want to go into nursing, you can volunteer in hospitals and hospices. Aspiring actors can gain an edge by helping out on a theatre production.

Stephanie Smart works as a programme manager for Riverside Radio at Charing Cross Hospital, presenting radio shows for the patients to listen to. She enjoys the fact that it acts as a support network for patients, and you also get to know the people who have long stays or return visits - she saw one girl recovering from a car accident and learn to walk again over the weeks. It's also fantastic training, as she explains, It's a great way to get into broadcasting," Stephanie explains. "If you go straight into commercial radio you spend years doing coffee runs, but here you get the exposure much more quickly, build up the hours and make demo tapes."   And you can volunteer as little as two hours a week.

Rob Byles helps out at a primary school's breakfast club, where he listens to children read and plays games with them. He claims that all it takes is getting up a bit early one day a week, which means he doesn't have to sacrifice an evening or weekend to it. To an employer it shows commitment and communication skills.

Kate Chedgey works at a homeless shelter one day a week, where she could be doing anything from serving food or washing up to chatting to people. At Christmas she organised a pantomime for everyone involved in the project to perform. She also sees it as a useful way to learn different skills. "I have to communicate with lots of different types of people," she says. "I've learnt how to deal with confrontation and issues surrounding alcohol and substance abuse, as well as the issues surrounding homelessness and housing applications."

OK, so it's not exactly trekking through the Andes, or a rainforest expedition in Fiji. But in the meantime, it teaches you new skills, it helps other people, and it looks great on your CV. And when I finally go on that gap year trip, I'll have that much more experience to take with me.         

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