It was the start of my first year at University. If you’d have asked me about ‘travel programs’ or ‘international organisations’ i’d have said nothing. Honestly I had never even come across them before starting University. I think it’s time somebody explained more about them, so I’ve taken it into my own hands.

Travelling the world has never been easier for students, young people and just any budding explorers. With the amount of options there are available now in the form of international programs or visa hosts, it is almost an incentive to get yourself to University just to give yourself some free time over the summer.

So let me tell you a bit about an international program. They all vary. Choosing the right program can completely depend on what you want out of it. The majority usually involve you obtaining a visa by having a host sponsor you. You will usually pay an organisation a fee for them to provide a sponsorship for you. You will then be required to move to the country you’ve got the visa for and live and work there meeting the conditions of the program. You’ll always go for a set period of time and this can vary between anything from 2 months to 2 years! It depends on the country, the sponsor and the visa restrictions. Don’t worry, all this information get’s a lot easier to process after I’ve given you a few examples.

Like with any job, you’ve got to factor in where you want to be located and what you want to be doing. You might have a specific company in mind or you might just have a particular organisation you want to go through.

For this article i’m going to focus on working in the United States of America. There are many other countries that participate in programs but perhaps I will explore those at a later date.

So let’s begin with a few organisations:

Yummy Jobs

A company based in the UK offering various different programs allowing you to work in the United States. The majority of programs offered by this company are only open to full time students. However, there are also some that don’t require this so you should always check out the website.

Yummy Jobs aren’t widely heard of but they offer some of the most fantastic programs and are a great company to go through. I did my first program with these guys and they couldn’t have been more helpful.

The Walt Disney World International College Program is one of their most popular programs they offer. This involves you travelling to Florida to work as a cast member for the Walt Disney World Resort over the summer. You could be placed anywhere in any of the parks or resorts. It also requires you to live in Disney housing with other cast members in a shared apartment. This program is highly competitive now. A lot of people apply to this every year so make sure you put maximum effort into your application as not everybody will even get an interview. You also have to be a full time student at University.

There are various other programs Yummy have on offer too like programs that involve working on Mackinac Island, at Universal Studios Florida and in various hospitality placements all over the United States. You can also work at Walt Disney World without being a student if you apply to the Cultural Representative Program and work at Epcot for 12 months.

Bunac

Bunac differ slightly with what they have to offer. Their working programs are merely offering you sponsorship and once you have paid the initial fee, you are expected to find a job yourself. This is a lot more independent as you will arrange your own flight, accommodation and choose exactly where you’d like to go in the country.

On the plus side, Bunac give you access to their own personal job zone which features a list of jobs you can apply for. A lot of the jobs on this job zone include accommodation as a lot of the jobs are based on islands or resorts.

The programs offered by Bunac are a lot more independant and require a lot more research. You might find yourself applying for various jobs all over and not ever hearing back from anyone. Patience is useful and being persistent helps too. I wouldn’t discourage you to apply though, after all, the Work America program by Bunac is what i’ll be doing this summer.

You aren’t limited to just working in the United States with Bunac; there are various other countries you can apply to but they all have different requirements. Some of them are based on your age but Work America is based on you being a full time student. Take advantage of this whilst you are at University as you will be very lucky if you ever get granted a visa allowing you to work such a wide range of jobs within the States again.

Camp America

Okay, so they aren’t the only company that offer you the chance to work at a summer camp in the USA. There are plenty of others such as USA Summer Camp, Camp Leaders, CCUSA and Americamp. They all vary slightly with the costs of the program, the camps available to work at and the amount of money you can earn whilst working for them.

I’m going to focus on Camp America just because it is the one I’ve heard the most about and it’s highly publicized in Universities.

Going on a Camp America program involves you jetting off to America in June to work with children (or not..) all summer. What you do over there depends on your position but all are pretty similar. You can work as a general counsellor: taking part in all the activities and looking after a group of children. Often you’ll even be staying in the cabin with your children. Advanced skills counsellor is for people with a particular skill they can specialize in and teach the children. Finally, Campower is for people wanting to take the backstage role and this is only open to full time students who haven’t yet completed their final year of study.

There are many benefits of doing a Camp America program. One of them being, “the experience is incredible”. I’ve heard from pretty much everyone I know who’s done it that it’s amazing and a life-changing opportunity. The good thing about it is that it’s available to those who aren’t students. However, it’s not very often that you’ll get such a large amount of free time to take part so if you do get chance, definitely consider making the most of your free time with a program like this.

You won’t make money off of Camp America but it is incredibly cheap to take part in. All your fee’s include your visa sponsorship, flight, accommodation and meals the majority of the time, whereas with most other companies you will have to pay for these separately.

This program is for hard-working adventurers with an interest in working with children and taking part in a range of different activities.

But of course, getting a place on an international program is becoming increasingly more difficult with no thanks to the current economical climate. But don’t let that put you off, i’m about to set off on my second program this upcoming May.

So if you’re at University, don’t waste your free time as you’re more likely to regret the things that you didn’t do rather than the things you go for. If you’re not a student but looking for a career break then there are plenty of options for you so make sure you use your free time wisely.