gogapyear.com - Essential advice for gap year travellers

Working in a foreign country is much harder than visiting on holiday. You’ll have to jump through a few legal loopholes before the authorities will grant you permission to work overseas. However, living somewhere is a very different experience to simply passing through.

Europe is by far the easiest place to work. British citizens can work in any European Economic Area member country – that’s the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – without restriction. Of course, you’ll normally need to speak the local language and demonstrate some other tangible benefit to the employer before you get taken on. It always pays to be enthusiastic, flexible and open-minded.

To work anywhere else you usually need to be sponsored by an overseas employer – which could be a different office of your current company. They’ll normally have to prove they couldn’t find a local person to do the job. Even then, getting the paperwork sorted can be a tedious and expensive process. For these reasons it’s tough for British nationals to get work in North America and many parts of the developing world.

Fortunately many countries have specific immigration programmes that allow young travellers, graduates or professionals from Britain to take paid training positions with local companies. Most of these programmes must be arranged through a sponsoring organisation such as BUNAC and typically you have to be a graduate or have relevant work experience to qualify.

Australia, New Zealand and Japan offer useful working holiday visas that allow you to work and travel for up to a year. These schemes are designed for people who want to take on casual work while they travel to top up their funds.

If getting a paid job sounds too much like hard work, there are a wealth of volunteering opportunities available around the world, from a few days to a few months and beyond. The commonest way to get a place on a project is to arrange it in advance with an agency in the UK. This can be a great way to see a country in depth and make new friends. The Year Out Group (www.yearoutgroup.org) is a great place to begin your research – you don’t have to be on a gap year to volunteer.

Top tips on working abroad

• Be prepared – find out what paperwork and permits you need in advance. If you arrive in Australia without a work permit you’ll need to leave the country to get one.

• Learn the language – few employers will hire you without a good grasp of the local lingo.

• Persistence – sometimes it’s tough to find work, but don’t give up. If you’ve got the skills and the right to work there’s probably a job out there for you.

• If there’s a chance of getting work through your current employer, put together a proposal. Demonstrate the value to them of transferring you overseas.

• If you’re thinking about volunteering, find out as much as you can about the project you’re applying to – who else will be there, what you will be doing all day and whether you can talk to people who did it before you. It’s a big commitment so make sure you’re armed with all the facts.