Leader: Gap between dream and reality

Published on Friday 3 September 2010 14:55

Are "gap" years and extended holidays a vital part of the new work-life balance? An opportunity to broaden our minds and expand our experience of other lands and cultures? Or are they just a glorious excuse for a skive - drifting from one place to another to dawdle in the sun and do nothing in particular?

According to new figures, the gap year is not only more popular than ever, but is also spreading to people in their thirties opting to take a break from work to go overseas. Some 4.1 million Britons are estimated to have taken a gap year in the last decade - and a similar number are said to be planning such trips in the future, including a million people aged 35-54 and half a million over-fifties.

Really? The findings are curious, given growing concerns over unemployment and apprehension among workers anxious to keep their jobs. Few of us have not dreamt of a year on the beaches of Cape Town or swanning round Australia, as the mood takes us.

But chucking in the job and ditching the "work" bit of the work-life balance? And there might be the small matter of the spouse and kids. The gap year dream may remain just that in a world of employment shortage - with no guarantee your job will be kept open when you tire of the coconut cocktails.