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Gap Years - CPE Writing - Magazine Article Question: You have been asked to write an article for Job Prospects magazine, a publication for 18-30 year olds, on the following topic: How taking a gap year* can enhance your career prospects. *A gap year is a break usually taken between leaving school/college and starting university, and is seen as a valuable way to gain work experience and life skills. You should focus on the types of job and leisure opportunities for young people taking a gap year in your country (or a country that you know well), the types of skills that can be gained and the likely value of these to potential employers. Write the article for the readers of the magazine. How taking a gap year can enhance your career prospects Are you considering takeING a gap year? If so, you have decided to join the thousands of youngsters every year who have DECIDED to take a break from academic studies, to gain work experience, to cultivate new interests, and to recharge their batteries before returning to school. It goes without saying that this period could be extremely beneficial when it comes to fostering new interests, developing practical skills, and potentially ascertaining which career path to pursue. However, admittedly, there are a considerable number of matters at hand when it comes to considering what to do. THIS ARTICLE ASSESSES the importance of taking a gap year, AND has been written to help students winnow down the vast ARRAY of opportunities and get the most out of that single year. Job opportunities The first upside of having a gap year is that it empowers you with the invaluable time to gain working experiences. Such benefit will carry even more weight for those who are indecisive about what career path to pursue. By taking a gap year to catch a glimpse of the real world, you might effectively prevent yourself from experiencing stagnation, emptiness and a lack of purpose later in your life when YOU STRIKE out on your own. By finding an internship to “test-drive“ a job, NOT ONLY WILL you take the unprecedented step of working in an office but also along the way YOU WILL develop critical working EXPERIENCE IN FIELDS such as communicatiON skills and teamwork. You will ATTAIN VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE to ENABLE YOU TO evaluate a person from multiple perspectives, rather than simply judging them based on test grades. You might potentially improve your long-term financial prospects, namely by managing your day-to-day financial needs, learning to keep daily expenditure in perspective, and getting a basic awareness of issues related to personal finance. Such SOFT skills, despite THE FACT THAT THEY ARE not taught or emphasized WITHin our current educational system, MIGHT WELL be of paramount importance over your entire lifespan. Therefore, you will derive priceless real-life experiences, and as mentioned above, said experiences can give you that competitive edge over your peers when it comes to impressing potential employers. Leisure Opportunities However, a gap year shouldn’t be all work and no play. Among all the virtues of taking a gap year, another THAT IS worth extolling is the opportunity to exploit this time PERIOD and utilize it to explore new interests. If you have always felt stifled by your school’s rigid TEACHING structure, a gap year is an excellent opportunity for you to break out of the mold and kindle curiosity in other aspects of life. For example, a gap year might be used to try out new sports, attempt a diversity of outdoor activities, acquire new languages, and take classes ON subjects that aren’t typically incorporated in the current educational system. In this respect, the benefit of a gap year can be immense, and you might flourish, develop, and thrive in ways that might not have been made possible during your traditional studies; there is every prospect that after during the gap year, you will experience a perceptible improvement in terms of your happiness index and overall welfare. By broadening your horizons and having an extensive scope of interests to develop, you will identify the most suitable career to embark on, thereby effectively REDUCING THE CHANCES OF languishing and muddling through your days aimlessly in the future. To conclude, there are great merits IN taking a gap year, it is a prerogative of young people, and it is essential to make the most of it. Plan your gap year well, and YOU will reap THE rewards CAREERWISE many years down the line. #CPE Writing #IELTSWriting #iswearenglish