Actual Gap year Opinion peice

To Take a Gap Year or Not to Take a Gap Year?

Due to the recession, last year competition for University places rocketed. Last August the Guardian stated that record numbers of students were expected to be disappointed when A-level results were published.  A high number of students were turned away from places at universities, even with top grades, and advised to defer a year and apply next year.  The rising level of fees also creates anguish for both students and their parents. Increasing fees generate benefits and disadvantages to perspective students.  An advantage of better university facilities and smaller classes on the one hand, but the limitations that high fee levels impose on the choice of course to enrol in, as certain courses cost more than others. A gap year provides the chance to save for these rising fees or clarify your study and career future through an alternate route rather than high education.

Luckily I was not one of those disappointed students, although I was uncertain that I had chosen the right career path to benefit my skills and interests.  So I took a gap year, decided to defer university and locate the best course for me. Which I found at Solent University. Once sure of my place at Solent I began truly enjoying the benefits of a gap year.

During my year before university I wanted to cram in as much as possible. Throughout the year I managed to gain a two week work placement at the publishing house FORWARD, on Bond Street in London. Whilst there I managed to do different projects with several different magazines, gaining beneficial skills for my first year of university. Work experience enabled me to build up my contact list ready for future placements. Plus I got a head start on working with Apple Macs and working with magazines; key skills for my fashion writing course. During my year out of education gave me a chance to breath and take a break from the stresses of exams. I chose to go travelling with a friend and travel up the east coast of Australia, presenting me with a number of new challenges and experiences. Being so far away from home and totally independent gave me a chance to mature and broaden my horizons. This experience also prepared me for life at university; improving my cooking skills and money management which made settling into my surroundings in Southampton ten times easier.

 I was in Australia for a total of 3 months, starting in Sydney and ending up in Cairns. I think a gap year is very valuable, experiencing different countries, gaining work placements and to increase your independence. I would advise young people to take the opportunity to have a gap year whilst they have the opportunity; because often once you have graduated the chance to be rootless has passed you by. Currently with it getting harder to get into University and the rising tuition and living fees I would think wisely as to whether or not to take a year out of education. But if your university place is secure a gap year at this age is a once in a life time opportunity.

View from Byron Bay, Australia and photograph of myself and a friend at the Koala Sanctuary on Magnetic Island.

Southampton and Carnage = Marmite Relationship

Southampton reduced to Carnage

Floods of students draped with their £10 Carnage t-shirts are ushered by Stewards and over watched by police from venue to venue. The regularity of this event is a cause for concern to many local residents.

Martin James, manager, Buddha Lounge, Bedford Place, Southampton said: “There are lots more stewards and the whole thing is managed a lot better than it was in previous years”.

Southampton regularly experiences the hugely participated student club crawl known as Carnage. Clubs such as Buddha Lounge, 90 degrees and Vodka revolution pay Carnage to attract streams of students to their door ways with the promise of a big night of boozing. Advertised by Carnage UK, owned by the Varsity Leisure group as “Quite simply the best student event ever”. Nuts Magazine naming Carnage as the number one student event of the year, since 2004.

Southampton is one of 45 student cities involved in Carnage UK events across the United Kingdom. Carnage attracts students from Southampton and Winchester. With a student population of 10,000 from Solent alone, the streets are guaranteed to be full. Drunk and disorderly students marching through the streets until the early hours chanting and screaming. Noise disturbance, litter and other general damage is an assured occurrence on a Carnage night.

Carnage UK is constantly being pulled up for the inappropriate behaviour of its participants. Jane Flew, 44 who lives in Portswood said: “They are so rude when they go on their mad, bloody, binge drinking”. Although she did assure us that it’s not all students who act in this degrading way. In 2009 a student from Sheffield Hallam University was taken to court for urinating on a war memorial during a Carnage night.  A year later, a repeat of this embarrassing behaviour in Southampton, outrages local press and the community. Receiving negative feedback from press and Southampton residents, Carnage nights are continually branded with a reputation for trouble.

James argues that Carnage nights are actually tame and controllable. He said: “To be honest Carnage nights have changed a lot and got a lot better, especially after the memorial incident. There are lots more stewards and the whole thing is managed a lot better than it was in previous years”.

Carnage appears to be an excuse for students to let loose, booze up and forget the world around them. “Being one of the first venues the students are at their most controlled, most of them come in virtually sober. Although I don’t think the aftermath is any different to a normal night”, said: James.

Beverages such as Jagerbombs and vodka mixers are placed at higher ‘Carnage’ prices rather than student deals. Although this does not defer the binging and resulting behaviour. “The stewards are there but we do employ extra bodies to ensure it all runs smoothly. Normally we have three men on the door but for Carnage we have five”, said James.

When alcohol and students are involved, situations are likelihood; But Carnage management appears to be improved. With the stamp of approval from both clubs and Southampton City council, residents will have to take Carnage with a pinch of salt and a shot of tequila.

Buddha Lounge dance floor.

Students dancing during Southampton Carnage (Hence blur).

Students drinking Jagerbombs in Buddha Lounge.

 

Carnage T-shirts, Alcoholic beverages.

Gap Year Opinion Peice

Website analysis of Grazia Daily.co.uk

Grazia Daily.co.uk is a young, modern and colourful website which is the online version of Grazia. I will be analysing this website’s business model, looking into what aspects of the site make it successful with its audience and how the website makes money. This website analysis will focus on viewer statistics, the efficiency of navigation around the site, links, promotional strategies and who the target audience are and what they expect. 

Arriving on the homepage it is clear that this website like the magazine is female orientated, aimed at a middle class, female audience, most likely between the age of 17- 35. I have interpreted this from the use of colour, content and layout. The titles, boarders and fonts use a scheme of three main colours; black, white and yellow. Pink is used solely for background colour around the magazine, newsletter and Grazia TV subscription information; emphasising the website’s aim to gain loyalty with the audience. The navigational links consist of fashion, beauty, opinion, TV, experts, shop, win, shows, blogs, video, travel, book club and magazine.  Jacob Nielsen states that if a homepage link is available from the homepage it should not be clickable this ensures no confusion of the page changing. Grazia Daily allows all of its navigational icons to be clickable and refreshes the page; this could prove confusing for some viewers.

 The navigational usability of this website is simple and easy especially if you know what you are looking for, with a search bar available. (Nielsen, 2002)“Give users an input box on the homepage to enter search queries, instead of just giving them a link to a search page, users expect and look for an input box”. From first hand experimentation on the site I thought that the load time and usability was quick and simple and I was able to locate desired information. Nielsen states that the load time should be a maximum 10 seconds; the site took less than 3.

From researching statistics on alexa.com the company that provides information on website traffic and more. I have found majority of traffic running through Grazia Daily is global views rather than those from the UK. Global traffic at 67,992 and UK views at 4,270. These figures are calculated from an average of daily views and views over 3 months. The bounce rate of Grazia Daily is 58%, this means that more than half the percentage of views are of one page only. An average of only 55 seconds is spent on a single page and a total of approximately 3 minutes is spent on the site by each viewer. These figures could indicate that its audience know exactly what they are looking for on the site, finding it quickly and efficiently. Although this could show that the site may be difficult to navigate resulting in users leaving.

To increase loyalty with Grazia Daily viewers and build a following, Facebook and Twitter are used as links to the site and to publish current Grazia news and blog updates. Promotion via these social networks expands the audience overseas. Celebrity news is a key focal point of the website; this news interests people around the world. Promoting via Facebook and Twitter also enables arenas for user generated content; blogs (Grazia Daily producing 10), audience participation with comment boxes and the option to upload eye witness material.

The website produces free content; therefore their method of profit is by using banner adverts and advertising subscriptions to the print magazine.  These banner ads are fashion orientated, advertising sales, newly released items and trends from high street shops such as River Island, and also designer brands such as Burberry. This specifies the target audience as both mid to high wage earners. This shows that the site catering to its audience.

The travel section is also where the website makes its money. Viewers can see handpicked holidays and book the holiday via the Grazia travel club, which can also create tailor made holidays specifically for the Grazia reader. The Grazia travel club is operated by Black Tomato, an ATOL protected Travel Company. Prices per person start at 1800 pounds, reflecting an audience with a substantial amount of disposable income.

From my analysis it is clear that this website is a hybrid model, a mixture of several business models. Content model by using banner adverts, providing free and updated content. Aspects retained from the community site model, using promotion via Facebook and Twitter and gaining loyalty from those sites users. The site could also be viewed as a basic commerce model providing sales from the travel club section. Evidence from alex.com shows that viewers are spending a little amount of time on this site this could be proof of competition from similar sites such as Cosmopolitan.com providing similar services but with a wider range of content and advertisements related to its target audience other than fashion. For example Cosmo online features adverts for car insurance rates aimed at women through Shelia’s Wheels. Grazia Daily’s loud use of colour, compact and overflowing layout could put viewers off, reflected in its 58% bounce rate compared to Cosmopolitans simple, feminine colour scheme and layout and a bounce rate 8% lower than Grazia Daily.

Figure 1:  Screen grab featuring Grazia Daily Home page showing adverts, main content and navigation keys.

Figure 2: Screen grab featuring the Navigation icons and website content.

Figure 3: Screen grab featuring Travel page and handpicked Grazia holiday choices.

Figure 4: Screen grab featuring links to Facebook and Twitter, the magazine newsletter subscription text box and a link to order the latest issue of Grazia.

Figure 5 & 6: Screen grabs featuring a Nivea advertisement and an Asos advert for a competition.

Figure 7: Screen grab of drop down box featuring the available Grazia blogs

My Passion: Horses

I have been passionate about Horses and riding since for as long as I can remember. I first started riding when I was 3 years old, on a Shetland pony called Twinkle. Which basically involved sitting on top of a super round little pony who walked approximately 3mph with the badest attitude ever, thinking I was THE Princess sat aboard my overweight steed. Pretty standard riding skills for a 3 year old. Having been my hobby for 17 years it’s a given that horses are one of my biggest passions.
    I have ridden horses all over the world and make it must do on holidays. I love to draw and photograph horses. So seeing them in different environments is so great. In March 2010 I had the chance to go travelling up the East coast of Australia, during which I spent two weeks on a Cattle station called Kroombit. It was an amazing experience rounding up cattle and goats; I learnt to Lasso and brand the goats which was very physical and frankly quite terrifying. I became a pro at cracking a wipe; major girl power moment when none of the guys to crack it. During my stay at Kroombit of 5am early morning starts, which I loathed, I also had a go at mechanical bull riding. One word.... Ouch. I stayed on for a total of 19 bucks but had huge black and blue bruises in between my thighs for next week. The American girls staying at the cattle station were unsurprisingly good...........  Wonder what they do in their free time??? 
I have ridden in France, Italy, Australia, and America; I cannot wait to increase that least some more! Currently a member of the Solent Equestrian team, I am loving riding at Gleneagles riding centre. The horses are gorgeous and i am finally perfecting my jumping skills. Jumping is seriously addictive, tiring but addictive. Today I had a flat work lesson and rode Bobbie who is a bit of an old fart. He disliked every corner and decided more speed was always the solution. Resulting in an interesting lesson with blistered fingers at the end. The purchase of gloves is in need. 

Also very happy with the news that I would be able to take photographs with the horses for my latest assignment. A double page spread of this S/S11 trends. So will be using the horses to feature alongside the models in their 70's boho gear. Exciting stuff I can't wait to choose the horses and get them looking all Native American. Roll on the good weather so we can get shooting. Fashion and horses go so well together I can't wait to get started.    

These are some of my pictures that I am going to base my photographs on. Their so beautiful, especially the first one from the H&M Fall Catalogue.