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

Although the main advantages of this propensity 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 and other basic expenses, 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 about other parts of the world. This
would enhance their mindset because, according to research, one of human’s strengths is to learn
through observation. Students would adopt various methods or look at a problem under different
perspectives, resulting in better decision-making for academic studies. Nonetheless, only a minority
of 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 Vietnam
and some countries around the world, 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, it would be best for them to not take one year off 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 pupils can do these activities during summer breaks and leisure time.