Many students nowadays spend one year working and traveling before pursuing tertiary education.

Although this propensity’s main advantages are financial independence and social knowledge, they
seem small and can be gained by other ways.

Admittedly, students will have more money when taking one year off to work. They would therefore
be financially independent and ease their parents’ financial burden by paying fees and covering their
living, leading to easier lives for both students and parents. This option, however, could not provide
sufficient money for 3-4-year university course. The benefit would thus not be considerable.

As for traveling, pupils will have social knowledge about cultures of other parts of the world. This
would enhance their mindset because, according to research, one of human’s strengths is learning
through observation. The adoption of various methods and different perspectives results in better
decision-making for academic studies. Nonetheless, very few people would travel around the world
for better academic performance at college seeing that the impact would not be substantial.

Having said that, spending one year working and traveling would become unnecessary. In some
countries, students usually have three-month summer vacation and coursework or leisure time
before and during university studies, and these periods of time in total will make the impacts from
working and traveling become more sustainable. The more time they have to work and travel, the
more experience and money they have. With regard to those who are not entitled to these
timeframes, not taking one year off would be ideal if their primary objective was to acquire
bachelor’s degree because the positive effects appear to be additional and short-term as mentioned
before.

Weighing up both sides of the argument, the inclination to work and travel seems completely
unnecessary given that these activities can be done during summer breaks and leisure time.