In the UK, ‘gap year’ is a common term understood by pretty much everyone. It refers to a single year ‘out’ from the standard path of education and/or work. Usually, it has a defined beginning and end. Unless someone is taking a year out because they want to reapply for universities they didn’t get into, many people going on to that level of education already have their place sorted for a year’s time.

I would say most people associate foreign travel with gap years, although some people spend the whole year working in order to be able to afford university. Many spend half a year working and half travelling, which is what I did. I lived at home and my parents didn’t charge rent; I was also going to India and spending more than half my time volunteering at a school with food and accommodation provided, so I easily covered the cost from my work. People I met from poorer backgrounds had usually worked longer hours (and sometimes put more effort into fundraising) in order to participate in the volunteer programme. I met one girl whose travels and volunteering in several different countries were being funded entirely by her trust fund, but I didn’t meet many people from wealthier backgrounds, so I wouldn’t like to generalise about how they funded the year.

Anyway, no-one equates a gap year with unemployment. Some indecisive people might say ‘I don’t know what to do next so I’m taking a gap year’, with no idea of what they’re going to do with that year, but use of the term ‘gap year’ creates an expectation that after the year is up, the person will have decided on further study or long term employment. Someone just leaving school with no future plans would say something like ‘I dunno what I’m going to do. Probably just try to find a job anywhere’. That’s not a gap year. I’ve also heard people say ‘I took a gap year to raise money for uni/my masters, but I haven’t found a job in four months!’. So, all classes understand the term, and a gap year isn’t a middle class kid’s word for unemployment.

I’m from a dirt poor, working class background and I did not take a gap year – I’d never heard of the term before. I felt like if I didn’t go now I’d never get another chance. I worked full time in the evenings while I went to University and took out very few loans.

As a working parent of students, I know that having an income around or above the national average means that I or my kids have to pay for their University education. If I had a below average income, the government would increasingly chip in, until – at low enough – they’d even support me too. Fair enough; that’s a basic part of what I think civilisation is intended to do.

But that doesn’t particular relate to perceived ‘class’, which has more to do with what you do to earn the money, and then how you chose to spend it, than it has with how much money you have.

So you often have ‘working class’ people (at least by some definitions) with more ‘disposable income’ than some ‘middle class’ people (in this instance, defined by kind of job, such as teaching, junior doctors).

Then, of course, some youngsters are inclined to follow their parents’ expectations (even if unconsciously), whilst others will deliberately chose something else. So one consultant anaesthetist’s son goes straight from school to be an apprentice plumber, while a mechanic’s daughter heads off to India to just hang out.

And finally, again from the parent-generation perspective, almost all the gap years I’ve watched have been largely self funded – i.e. the young person has worked to fund the travel or training (e.g. in rock climbing), before returning to the mainstream formal education. But that’s probably because the ones I know are ‘middle class’, where paying your own way has always been part of the ethic! I guess there’s some ‘upper middle class’ with indulgent parents…

A lot of people’s reactions were literally, “Hugh. I’m not familiar with that. Must not exist.” What if I told you the gay community felt excluded by heteronormative marriage laws? If you weren’t gay, would you be prepared to claim this without actually having talked to a gay person? For a sociology blog, it’s pitiful.

You are probably not as middle class as you think, or you might be lower middle class, as opposed to upper middle class.

And it’s 5 years for lawyers and doctors…! Eek.

I’d imagine even more challenging in US for those who want to go into medicine/law as they have to do their first undergraduate degree before they even go into studying medicine or law.

If anything a gap year can really help get some life experience towards deciding what you really want to/would hate to do as a career.