A gap year? What on earth for, my dear child?

Well, it may not be such a bad idea. Approximately 18,8% of the starry-eyed and ambitious students who enrolled as first-time entering undergraduates at South African universities in 2013 did not return the next year.

There are of course a wide variety of reasons why first-years do not always succeed – a second-rate high school education, wrong career or subject choices, or simply because the world can be a daunting place.

However, there are also many possible solutions, such as the wide range of support services that the NWU offers to first-year students.

In the case of young people who are not ready for university studies, a gap year during which they can find themselves and discover the world before going to university may not be such a terrible idea.

A lo-o-o-ng vacation?

However, your idea of a gap year may be poles apart from your sprog's visions of loafing around and doing nothing.

Dr Karen van der Merwe from the School of Behavioural Sciences in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences on the NWU's Vaal Triangle Campus warns that parents and children should agree on how a gap year should work.

“Most people view it as a period – a year or two – between school and university set aside for travel and work,” she says.

“An important aspect that distinguishes a gap year from an extended vacation is that young people are engaged in meaningful activities.” Possibilities include volunteering for community work, finding a job, doing military service or religious work, or enrolling for self-improvement programmes.

South African research indicates that a gap year could be beneficial – particularly for the development of soft skills.

According to Karen, young people get to know themselves better and their self-image, self-motivation, perseverance and decision-making skills improve. They also become more responsible, which enables them to manage their freedom better.

Alumna also believes in gap year

Another person who believes that a gap year could reduce the high dropout rate among first-year students is Potchefstroom Campus alumna Dr Hanri de la Harpe, who obtained her doctorate in creative thinking at the NWU and who lectured at this campus for 11 years.

Hanri is the principal of the Equilibria School of Life in Potchefstroom that offers a course to help young people find their niche in life and to become independent.

This course is Hanri's brainchild and focuses on thinking skills such as emotional intelligence, positive thinking and study skills, as well as social and financial skills, healthy lifestyle habits, time management, first aid, relationships, adventure camps and community work. Hanri says a ‘breather year’ could help young people to make a career choice in a calmer, more informed manner while also acquiring essential life skills.

“We convey the sort of knowledge to young people that adults tend to possess at the age of 45, but needed when they were 18. We think of the programme as a crash course in life,” says Hanri.