To help you decide on the best options for your career break or adventure travels, each month we will put your questions to a different industry expert.  This month Phil Murray, founder of Gapadvice.org, answers your questions on becoming taking a grown up gap year.

Gapadvice.org will be offering free one-to-one consultations at One Life Live 2008 within the Travel and Career break clinic - arrive early to book your place.

I love my job, but really want to take a career break and then return.  Any suggestions on how I can convince my employer to let me go and keep my job open so that I can return?

Career breaks or sabbaticals are basically the same - the term sabbatical tends to have been around longer .  Career breaks are not always funded by the employer - sabbaticals are.  Sabbaticals are often associated with academic staff in Higher Education.

Some employers demand the right to vet the type of activity undertaken in the career break eg education, childcare or voluntary work.  Others allow the employee complete freedom of choice. A qualifying period of service is often required to allow a career break and then return to the same employer. 

If there is no entitlement, don't despair.  You need to present your case:   

• Before asking, wait until you have worked for the company for a few years!
• Research your case well.
• Present it to your employer showing the benefits to the organisation as well as to yourself.
• Give your employer plenty of notice – six months at least.

In addition:  

• Think about how you will present your career break to a new employer.
• View it as career development.

Many people leave their job and take a career break without the guarantee of a job to go back to.  It sometimes takes courage, but could be the start of a new and more rewarding life.

I'm approching retirement and considering taking an extended trip to travel and perhaps do some voluntary work overseas. What options are open to me?

Many 50-75 year olds, some part of the baby boomer generation, are taking retirement gap year travel breaks, often  as an extension/replacement of their holidays.  Many have already travelled extensively as part of their work or may have missed out on a gap year, having worked for 30+ years in their careers. It is estimated that this market is 200,000 strong in the UK and growing. 

They often have disposal wealth.  Mortages paid off, cash in the bank and pensions to rely on.  With time to spare, all options are possible.  In addition, they have skills which are valuable assets worldwide, be it banking, medical, plumbing, management, housebuilding, medicine etc.  These can be passed on, if the circumstances are right.

There are thousandsof options open to you and a whole host of exciting adventures to be had.  Take a look at the exhibitors attending One Life Live here and draw up a short list of the types of experiences that interest you.  It may be that youwant to spend a couple of months working on a voluntary project with the likes of Mondo Challenge and then move on to an exotic location to learn a new skill such as diving, sailing or even salsa dancing.

I am planning on taking six months out to travel and do some voluntary work overseas, but have read a lot in the press about the ethics of such a trip.  How can I be sure that I travel and volunteer in an ethical way?

There is much ambiguity about the ethical issues involved in travelling responsibly around the world and the extent to which companies have used the expressions ‘eco’, ‘sustainable’, ‘fair’ etc as part of their marketing plan. What is clear is that all of us, whether gap year travellers, business people or tourists, have an obligation to be aware of, amongst many other things: 

• The effect on the local communities
• Respecting local customs and cultures
• The sustainability of the projects we are involved in
• Conservation of the environment
  

As an example, there are concerns about 'Voluntourism' i.e. the extent to which short term volunteering on projects, which may not be sustainable and do not sufficiently involve the local community, are justifiable.  It is linked to the 'benefit balance' - who should benefit most, the volunteer or the receiving organisation?  This debate has raised significant questions, but should not deter willing volunteers for whom their first short-term experience could lead to a life-time of meaningful volunteering.
An example of a gap year company with an ethical mission is The Ethical Project Company: www.theethicalprojectcompany.com .  As such it states that: 

• As an organisation we aim to be as ethical as possible and are run on the principles of fair trade and sustainability. We want to have a positive impact on the country we visit in every aspect.
• Firstly this means we try to add as much as possible to the local economy of the places we visit. We do this by paying a fair wage to people for as many services as possible.
• We only use locally owned and run services e.g. hotels or tours
• We make sure we are not damaging the environment or exploiting the local people.
• Any visits to villages are organised by members of that village so that they can put their profits back into their village and also decide what we should do.
• The guides we use are local people who can tell you about the destination from the background of someone living there.
• The projects are in schools where your presence will make a real difference.
• We also want you to learn as much as possible while on the projects and we do this by teaching the basics of the language and holding other talks on culture.
• Some of the money you put towards your project will go towards buying supplies for the school that you can buy and hand over.
• Group sizes are kept to a maximum of 15 to reduce the impact on the destination.
• In order to be sustainable as a company we maintain a green policy in the office.
• Although this is not a total compensation, we try to offset the amount of green house gas released due to your flight by paying for reforestation. While in the country we also try to use public transport as much as possible.
  

Have a look at these websites to for further information on ethical issues:

http://www.ethicalvolunteering.org/

http://www.gapyearresearch.org/

To put a question to one of our experts on any aspect of taking a career break or travelling the world email the One Life Life team here.

We regret our experts cannot answer communications in person.  Our experts choose a selection of your questions to answer each month, so please do check back to see if your question has been answered.