The Best Courses to Make the Most of Your Sabbatical

Are you growing tired of your current lifestyle? Perhaps you’re finding the daily grind to and from work starting to get you down? Are you missing new challenges in your life? If so, then maybe it’s time for a career break.

With the endless options for cheap travel and bargain flights, it’s never been easier to follow your heart, jump on a plane and explore new corners of the world. However, such a leap can be incredibly daunting. Taking that time out of your job or quitting a safe and permanent position is a scary thought.

However, there are ways to make the jump a little less daunting and a little more pro-active. Enrolling in an accredited distance learning course before you go or during your sabbatical, could turn your career break into the chance of a lifetime.

Here are some ideas to help make your career break as productive and proactive as possible.

Childcare

If you’re great with children and feel happier out and about than in an office environment, then perhaps childcare could be an option for you. Oxford College offers an accredited Level 3 Diploma in Childcare & Development as a distance learning course. As it is recognised internationally, it allows you to put your skills into practice and work wherever you fancy!

Study before you go in order to secure better prospects. Alternatively, apply for a relevant job in this sector, with the intention to study whilst on your adventure abroad.

Au Pair work is a great option, as you generally get a lot of free time to yourself, lending the chance to study whilst at the same time gaining invaluable practical experience to compliment.

Once you discover that you enjoy this new career path, it might be worth taking your skills further and enrolling on the Level 5 Accredited Diploma in Childcare Studies distance learning course. With this professional diploma, paired with childcare experience you have the choice to work almost anywhere your heart desires.

Who knows, you could end up as a private nanny to the stars. Nanny positions on super yachts start from €2500 per month, all expenses paid. Set your sights high!

Become a Travel Writer

Travel the world and get paid for it. Good travel writers and bloggers support their exciting, nomadic lifestyles by earning advertising revenue from their websites. In order to attract advertisers they must generate enough traffic to their site by producing high quality, well-written and interesting articles.

Oxford College offers a Level 3 Diploma in Journalism, a great stepping-stone towards learning how to write, edit and craft pieces for all media platforms. To further your prospects they also offer a Level 5 Diploma in Journalism, which will give you the tools and confidence to begin your travel-writing career.

Whilst travelling on your year out, you can study towards your diploma, all the while improving and practicing your writing skills. What better to write about than your new adventure into the unknown.

Travel to Gain Experience

The travel and tourism sector is an ever-growing and highly important tertiary industry. Exciting opportunities lie within this area. It is particularly suited to those that enjoy travel and communication.

Oxford College offers up to a Level 5, accredited distance learning Diploma in Travel and Tourism. This course offers vocational training to help develop strong business management and communications skills.

Job prospects vary, offering a good choice of career options. Positions such as holiday representatives, hotel management, tour management, tourism officers, event organisers, outdoor activities/education management and travel agency management are some popular roles achievable with your newly acquired skills.

Use your sabbatical to gain hands-on experience by applying for part-time work in any popular tourist attraction abroad, allowing you to study alongside. During your year out, overseas experience could also include work at holiday or theme parks, work as a lodging manager as part of a summer camp staff team abroad.

Do the Maths…Consider Accountancy

Accountants are an indispensable commodity for any business, in any country, in all corners of the world. Oxford College’s Level 3 distance learning diploma course could open up your career prospects and help you to enter a world of opportunity.

To gain initial experience there are many organisations offering overseas internships. There are also a handful of charities seeking volunteer accountants to work with them, particularly in developing countries. Most programmes will require you to work for about 20 hours a week, allowing sufficient time to continue your studies and explore your new surroundings!

Oxford College offers a BTEC HND in Business Accounting, getting you one step closer to a professional and highly sought after career.

Go on; take the chance and step into the unknown. Take that career break and make the change you want to see. Arm yourself with skills and knowledge by learning about your desired career choice and finding a distance learning course to do before you go, eventually returning (or not) with worldly knowledge and accredited skills to compliment.

Or simply freestyle it and use your sabbatical as an opportunity to explore what it is you truly enjoy doing, relishing the discovery of new cultures, adventures and experiences in a foreign land.

Whatever you decide to do, do it for you and make your career break the chance you’ve been waiting for. The world is your oyster!