In the past few weeks #Fresh Take has paid a lot of attention to the portion of the youth who just completed matric. This week #Fresh Take, takes a look at the pro’s and con’s of heading straight into the work place after matric.
I hope the #Fresh Take articles published in the past weeks have been of great help. Carefully weigh the pro’s and con’s. Note to current matriculants: you need to decide carefully about what you are doing next year. Because your decision will have a life-long impact on your finances, as well as many other factors.
Sure, it would be GREAT to just hang about for a year – who doesn’t want to do that? Reading, shopping, maybe travelling a bit or whatever it is you would like to do with your time, which you couldn’t while seated at a school desk for 12 years. But it is vitally important that, if you don’t study next year, you at least do SOMETHING constructive. It’s an incredible waste of money to study a course you may not continue with. If you have no idea of what general career path you want to follow, a purposeful year of work experience and perhaps a few courses could be beneficial to you.
Downsides to the gap year
Heading into the work environment straight after matric can affect your plan to study. Getting back into a routine of studying after working and earning money can be extremely difficult. You may be tempted to give up on tertiary education.
You get left behind
An (often) unexpected side effect of a working after martic is the not-so-nice feeling of being left behind. When you return, a lot of your friends will be moving into their second year of their studies. In your absence they would have grown, changed, and established new friendship groups. You’re likely to feel as though you don’t quite fit in the way that you used to.
Cash crisis
If you have decided to work after matric and it doesn’t go according to plan (or if you don’t plan it), you might spend more of your savings than you had bargained for. Being in debt or a compromised bank balance can badly affect your plans to study.
Reasons to get stuck straight into studying
You’re already in the zone. When you finish school you’re already “in the zone”. You’re familiar with studying and some form of academic discipline. This makes transitioning into a “varsity” (or other tertiary education) structure so much easier than if you take a gap year and decide to get work experience. The desire and discipline to study can fade after spending time being in a different environment.
It’s the quickest way to make decent bucks
There are very few people who manage to earn well, without having studied first. The quicker you get your accounting degree/web design diploma/beauty therapy certification the sooner you’ll have real money to live off. Bear in mind that the student who studies straight after school and graduates in three years is significantly better off than matriculants who select any other option – be it entering the workplace or taking a gap year.
