If you have recently completed your school studies and have decided to take a break before you go on to study further, the chances are good that you will be feeling at something of a loose end. While the initial sense of freedom at having finished twelve or thirteen years in the education system is enjoyable, it also wears off pretty quickly so that most teenagers on a gap year find themselves simply bored.

Conventionally, not-yet students on their year off take jobs working in restaurants and bars. While this kind of occupation takes care of pocket money, it is also not exactly fulfilling. Instead of committing your time to the hospitality and service industries, you might consider taking a job that is directed at a valuable social goal: you might take up work with a charity or join an environmental agency.

In reality, the time between school and university is the period of life in which you can best afford to throw yourself into this kind of cause. Few people are able to devote their entire lives to defending the environment, for example, since the kind of jobs available in that area simply don't pay enough to be viable. So before you need to start worrying about annuity rates and mortgage payments, it makes sense to try to make a valuable contribution.

Of course, if by some chance you are able to carry your 'cause' through into your adult working life all the better. But it seems to be the case that while most people align themselves with certain values, few are able to find paid work defending them.

If you are currently in that period of time between school and university, it might be a good idea to veer away from the convention of finding yourself bar work and take up a position that shoulders some social responsibility.