As university students, we are lucky enough to have long holidays. As a second year student so far I have worked abroad in Greece and France twice as well as Kos and America and I'm off to work in Fiji this summer. All of these amazing experiences you can do during your university holidays to earn some money whilst having a lot of fun so that you feel as if you haven’t wasted your break working a boring student job.

As someone who has worked abroad so many times, I would recommend this to everyone as most companies will pay for your flights, accommodation and 3 meals a day whilst giving you a competitive salary so that you can go away and work abroad and save your earnings for university the coming term.

Why would you want to work at your local pub for £9.50 an hour and then finish work to head home in the miserable UK/Irish weather when you could be working for example in Greece earning slightly more but earning great tips at the hotel bar you work at from holiday makers and then spending the rest of your day on the beach watching the sun go down with your friends in the warmth?

I've made a list of some great companies to work for as well as the best ways to find jobs abroad.  

Why not give American Summer Camp a go?

Summer camps are always a great start because they most often don’t require any qualifications (apart from some very specific activity jobs). Most students are aware of Camp America where people go away to work on an American summer camp for 2 months and then spend their money travelling America afterwards.

I worked at Camp America this summer at a camp in Pennsylvania called Pine Forest Camp as a water-sports instructor. I had a great time fully immersing myself into the ‘Parent Trap’ and ‘Camp Rock’ style of life with Fourth of July celebrations and different camp events. Good companies to help find your camp include Camp America, Camp Leaders, USA Summer Camps, Americamp, Camp USA and BUNAC.

All of these companies sponsor you for your VISA, help with requirements and finding interviews, set you up with potential camps and help with employment organisation. After camp it is always fun to travel around with everyone to see new parts of the US.

There are also camps in Canada and Europe

However, American summer camps, although the most advertised, are not the only camps you can work at. Camp Canada is just as impressive as Camp America and is very similar but in prettier settings with the same style of process and pay.

There are also European camps that people can work at, most of which are English speaking. Venue Holidays for example hire people to be camp reps to help at their camps in Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland and Austria. Rockley and PGL offer different job roles at activity camps in Southern France and Spain such as activity leaders, kitchen porters, waiters, cleaners plus many more.

Could you manage a kids club?

For those who wish to work in hotel instead of a camp, there are many options worldwide (mostly in the Mediterranean over the summer). Worldwide Kids and their winter partner Powder Byrne offer job roles at kids clubs and creche’s in luxury hotels as well as roles as nannies and baby sitters for all times of the year.

I have previously worked for Worldwide Kids as an activity leader for the kids club in Greece where I would take the children for ice cream, bowling, to play on the beach etc and then would get 2 hours off for lunch to enjoy sitting by the pool followed by more activities in the afternoon. I would work from 10-4 with a 2 hour lunch break and then after work, I would swim in the sea and enjoy time with my friends before heading to dinner together and then babysitting.

Or take on some babysitting?

The babysitting was something that you could sign up for and I would usually babysit 5 nights a week as I would get €20 an hour for it on top of tip which I would spend on my days off on cool activities such as white water rafting. I have also worked for their partner Powder Byrne over the university Christmas holidays out in Tignes, a French ski resort doing a similar role.

Skiing to work? Count me in!

The best part about completing a ski season is that you get to ski to and from work every day and if you only have an afternoon shift, you would ski in the morning or vice versa. I have now completed one over the Christmas holidays and one over Easter as a ski nanny with SkiFamille.

For these roles, you don’t need any childcare qualifications only a DBS which your company will sort out for you as they will give you all of the training needed.

Put your sporting skills to work

There are many other roles in a hotel you can have such as specific activity leaders or beach managers. I have worked as a water-sports instructor for Nielson in Kos and Mark Warner in Greece over my summer holiday last year and over my October reading week and had the best time as we would have staff activities after work such as tipsy tennis and camp bonfires and cycle rides along the marina.

Alpine Elements and Peligoni club are also very similar and offer roles such as a bike instructor, tennis instructor, fitness instructor, nannies, water-sport instructors, hotel receptionists, waiters, barmen, front of house, lifeguards and holiday reps. For those lucky enough to have an EU passport, TUI is a great company to work for as a holiday rep at a hotel as you help with airport pick up and drop off and have a good number of days off each week.

How can I find this kind of job?

It is really easy to find these types of jobs abroad which mostly require no qualifications as they can all be found either online or on Facebook.

Ace Working Holidays is a good website to find party location jobs such as club reps, shot girls, bar men, servers and promoters in places such as Zante, Ibiza, Marbella and Monaco for example.

For those wanting to find a mix of types of jobs then WorkAway, Global work and Travel, Gap360, Goglobal, Season Workers and Oyster Worldwide are all great websites. On these you can find volunteering opportunities, paid jobs teaching English abroad, camp jobs, hospitality, activity jobs and nanny roles.

Follow the companies to see opportunities

On Facebook it is easy to find jobs more last minute through searching groups. The main groups where companies post their adverts on are Global Seasonaire Network, Jobs Abroad and Seasonaires. I constantly check Facebook for these types of jobs because it is easy to find a job if you leave it last minute as you simply email your CV and a cover letter to the address in the Facebook advert and will usually have a response within the next few days to get you flown out and working before you know it.

Think big, Go for it!

As I mentioned earlier, why waste your long university holidays doing a boring job at home when you could be working and saving money, earning great tips abroad either at ski resorts in winter or in the sun on lovely beaches over summer. These jobs all help you to enjoy your time working alongside other students and having days off to travel every week all whilst having your lifestyle paid for by the company you are working for ensuring that you can save for the university term ahead.

Find out more

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Charlotte Jennings  Politics and International Relations | Undergraduate Student | London, England I'm a Politics and International Relations student in my second year at Queen's. I am from London and currently live in student housing but lived in Elms BT9 last year. I love to be a busy person and am a member of multiple societies and teams at Queen's. I am also undertaking a charitable project at Queen's called the Zambia project where we host fundraisers in order to collect money and aid for our missionary trip to Zambia. In my spare time I teach water sports in Bangor and so far I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Belfast even though it is very different to London. I would highly recommend the university to anyone as I have had the best experience here so far and have fallen in love with this country.