Have Work, Will Travel
- Image by …-Wink-… via Flickr
What about similar programs to easily allow older skilled travelers to teach / deliver some of their useful experience to places that don’t have access. Imagine a “working holiday” where the first few days of your trip involved teaching or training of local teachers / students. Besides helping people who are really eager for your knowledge, you wind up knowing the best places to go on your holiday in their country and wind up with great personal connections to visit along the way.
Tired of just putting your bum in the sand?
Whistler, Canada
I HAVE always been ambitious and adventurous, someone with a zest for life who more than anything wants to see the world. And because I hold an Australian passport, I’ve been able to do just that, because I can travel on Working Holiday visas — a benefit that young Americans should envy.
Australia has reciprocal agreements with 26 governments that allow its young citizens (usually those under the age of 30) to work temporarily in each other’s countries, almost always without having to arrange employment sponsorship in advance. I’ve traveled from Asia to Europe to the Americas with these visas, and applying for one for Canada, where I’m now working, took me only a few minutes.
Working Holiday programs were created to foster youth mobility, but they also encourage the exchange of cultural values. Participants serve as ambassadors for their home country and gain a greater appreciation for their host. And participants, like any tourists, contribute to the economy; Working Holiday travelers spend about $1.2 billion annually in Australia.
The United States, to its detriment, has no similarly accessible working holiday program for its citizens, except some small pilot exchanges with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea that have onerous application processes. Why doesn’t it follow Australia’s lead, and expand the program?
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