Grey Gap Year

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A grey gap year, derived from gap year, refers to a temporary break in a professional career or in mid-life to travel or change a life course for discover of new experiences or to travel. Activities vary enormously though usually travel is part of the journey during the grey gap year. Sometimes the gap year involves extra academic courses and non-academic courses, it is not uncommon for people to break a professional career to take an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) or to retrain in another profession. The time period for the grey gap year varies, although an awareness of the increases in life expectancy, and the changing nature of professional careers with the increase in acceptance of portfolio careers, and formalised opportunities for mid-career break projects and volunteering means that the grey gap year often takes on a protracted time frame.

History

The earliest documented mention of a gap year for grown ups appears in novel titled "Gap Year For Grown Ups" published by Orion Books in 2008 by Annie Sanders (actually Annie Sanders is a pseudonym for two journalists who write together - Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders,they are television and print journalists who have written ten non-fiction books and six novels together while managing to remain the best of friends. Both live in Stratford-Upon-Avon with their families. The story is of a middle-aged mother and wife who steps away from her middle-class life in Britain to spend time alone in the South of France - “What she wants is an adventure - a wild, unpredictable adventure - but her husband, good old reliable David, is very happy with the status quo.“ Here the yearning for time out is seen as a fictional escape adventure.

The real life grey gap year of a couple Alan and Bev Maloney from Buckinghamshire England is reported in the Independent newspaper in 2011 entitled Our Great Big Grey Gap Year, where they go back packing to Australia, India and South East Asia (aged 68 and 50 years).

This article also indicates a growing trend for the grey gap year, by reporting research by P&O cruises showing that in the previous year, that there had been “a 300 per cent increase in the over-50s age group taking a year out to travel the world in the previous five years – with envy at the lifestyles of younger people said to be partly the inspiration.”

Shortly after a number of books appear carrying the phrase "grey gap year" some are collective directories with ideas on how one might occupy a year out of normal life, with gap year jobs, volunteering and traveling adventures on a budget.

Reports in the press describe how once parents you used to worry about their children and students will get distracted from their studies by an extended leave of absence, now the children reportedly become concerned with limited communications from their parents while they are travelling around the world.

Life expectancy

A greater awareness among over 50s of their life expectancy and a greater emphasis on planning for a longer life has given rise to a growing industry to cater to the options that exist for the over 50s. While life expectancy varies from country to country across the world an increase in life expectancy is reported globally.

In the countries where a grey gap year is most visible (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, UK, USA) there has been a significant increase in grey gappers travelling the world before retirement age. This could be linked in general to an awareness of rising life expectancy

The trend continues

Perhaps originally considered a media worthy fad the increasing numbers of grey gappers taking up a number of different activities is increasing. A global trend is visible with increasingly varied activities and companies catering to the demands for those activities appearing. The internet has enabled the growth of these activities and awareness among "silver surfers".

Marc Freedman commentator on "The Big Shift – Navigating the New Stage Beyond Mid-life" reports that “ For a life course in desperate need of punctuation the grown up gap year is the perfect way to rectify the run-on sentence. Many people are already taking time off in one form or another. Some even call it retirement. In 2010 a study from the RAND Corporation shows that a sizable portion of the US population first retires then ‘unretires’ an act researchers find is primarily by design and not the result of unexpected circumstances. In other words, many may be using the cover of retirement, followed by unretirement, as a de facto gap period. And these interludes are hardly restricted to the United States. In Britain for example there are an estimated 200,000 grey gappers taking a career break…”

What do people do

The range of activities that grey gappers choose to take up ranges across the board from volunteering through widely known organisations like the Peace Corps and VSO, to volunteering activities like volunteering through formal charities. Increasingly and powered by the internet the options are growing through the sharing economy with people volunteering their time and experience in exchange for free travel, free accommodation. Some ideas that people become involved with during a grey gap year include:

• Volunteering on a wide range of United Nations projects
• Over 50s volunteering
• Cultural exchange and learning for free food and accommodation
• Volunteering home and pet care around the world in exchange for free accommodation
• Volunteering for seniors and mature professionals

See also:

• Gap Year
• Life expectancy
• Silver surfers
• Peace Corps
• VSO

Further Reading

• 2013 – ThisisMoney.co.uk – I’m 55 and I want to take a gap year. Am I too old and should I worry about my finances?
• 2015 – The Telegraph – Are you planning a grey gap year?
• 2015 – Express (UK) – Retirees on a gap year: We are proof that you are never too old for an adventure
• 2016 - Gransnet.com – Would you take an adult gap year?
• 2017 – Ourplace – Could you take a grey gap year?
• 2018 – Travelmole – Grey gappers get the travel bug

References

This article "Grey Gap Year" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Grey Gap Year. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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