Cultivating Independence

A big part of the gap year experience is cultivating your independence and developing real-world skills that aren’t taught in school.

All of our Gap Year Programs help students to build their independence and resilience and act as a stepping stone to college, work and life as a young adult in different ways.
Whether by managing your own home (yes, you will have to do laundry, cook, clean and co-exist with your peers!) or learning to navigate your way through Europe, you will gain practical skills, learn to live and work as a team with others and most importantly, be responsible for your own day to day living.

A more challenging piece in building responsibility is self-advocating. Moving beyond the parental communication loop is essential to leading one’s own life as a young person. We strongly encourage our students to advocate directly to the Irish Gap Year team when issues arise, breaking that ‘digital umbilical cord’ and learning the invaluable lesson of standing on your own two feet.

We believe that one needs to be allowed to learn from both their successes and challenges to grow and become independent. We therefore offer support rather than hand holding and value insight and learning over discipline. Students will be asked to step out of their comfort zone and not look to program leaders or their parents for all the leadership. Instead, we encourage ‘learning by doing’ which creates self-governance and a sense of ownership of your experience

Don’t worry though, we won’t be throwing you in at the deep end and you will have our team’s full support in this process.