Sabbatical

The term sabbatical traditionally applies to the system of universities allowing lecturers to take a period of leave in order to study or travel. Nowadays, however, the term sabbatical is more commonly used to describe companies or businesses allowing staff to take an extended period of unpaid leave, with the promise that their job will be kept open for them as long as they return to work within a specified period of time - usually somewhere between six months and a year. With most organisations or companies, in order to qualify for a sabbatical, you need to have been employed by the company or organisation for a minimum period of time (usually five or more years). Not all companies operate a policy of offering sabbaticals to staff but, with the notion of taking a gap year or career break at some point now such a popular feature of modern day life, an increasing number of companies are coming round to the idea. Indeed civil servants are even permitted to take a sabbatical twice during the course of their career.

The benefits of taking a sabbatical are two-fold. By granting sabbaticals companies, in the long term, are losing far fewer valuable staff who have decided they need to take a breather from the rat race by taking a career break. At the same time the benefit of taking a sabbatical for the employee is obviously that they can travel on a career break safe in the knowledge that they will still have a secure income waiting for them on their return. Many people who consider taking a gap year or career break can become nervous at the prospect of having to look for a new job when they return home - so being able to take a sabbatical provides welcome peace of mind and security in this situation. A crucial point about sabbaticals is that not everyone who wants to take a career break is necessarily unhappy with their job or career. Many people simply feel the need, having worked continuously for a number of years, to totally get away from it all and re-charge their batteries for a longer period of time than the average two-week holiday allows - and taking a sabbatical enables them to do this. Some people who take a sabbatical even decide to enhance their career and broaden their horizons by working within the same field in a different country on their sabbatical.

A great option if you are thinking about taking a sabbatical, is to do some volunteer work whilst you are overseas. Many companies will even provide some form of sponsorship to their employees if they get involved with a worthwhile volunteer project during their sabbatical. Doing some volunteer work on your sabbatical is extremely rewarding and it's likely you will also pick up useful new skills and experiences during the course of your volunteer placement. If volunteer work is something you are considering doing on your sabbatical, Real Gap offers a huge range of programmes containing a volunteer element all over the world. The main qualification for most of Real Gap's volunteer programmes is simply enthusiasm - but some programmes are looking for people with specific professional skills, such as nursing for example. If you work within a specific field, and would like to put your skills to good use in a totally different environment on your sabbatical, volunteering is an excellent solution. Once you return from your sabbatical this type of experience really enhances your CV too.


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