Freeway - Graduation in Sweden

Study, work and au pair abroad
We are two girls that are interested in going abroad after school. We’ve always planned to go abroad to study after secondary school. Not only to study or work but also to get to communicate in a different language and to get experiences for life. We think that through studies or work abroad we’ll get a wide knowledge and insight in other parts of the world than our own. We’ll learn things that we later on in life will get great use of. We believe that the most young people have thought about what they are going to do after school and that most of them are thinking of going abroad either to study or work. In Sweden the tradition of widening our views through studying abroad has been a bit bigger than in many other countries. The Swedish people has always been quite good in learning foreign languages and we are rather international. The stream of young people heading out in the world has always been big from Sweden. These learning thirsty persons have gone to all corners of the world to study or work in periods from three weeks to three years. But now, youth from all over the world have discovered Sweden as a study country.

Where to turn
There are many officers and agencies that you can turn to if you have decided to go abroad. Two of the biggest are STS and EF. They have been arranging abroad travels for many years and they are also arranging language courses abroad. You can also turn to employment officers or look in a foreign newspaper where you can find advertisements about au pair etc. If you go with an agency that is specialised on for example studies it is often very planned. All you have to do is choose when, where, how and why you want to go abroad then they’ll handle the rest. They settle with everything you need, your housing, schools and other rather important stuff. There are often people placed in the land you’re in. They can help you with all problems that might come along the way. Agencies often say that you always can take contact with them and that they always supply you help are you need it. And that is something that feels good to many people.

Youth opinions
We asked twenty youths about their opinion about life after school, this is the results. Every pupil we asked wanted to go abroad after school, some of them want to work abroad, and au pair was very popular. Others wants to study abroad, on college or High school. And some pupils just wants to travel around the world. We also asked them were they wanted to travel. Many of them wanted to visit some warm place to sun and swim, and it was just a few who preferred places as Asia and India. The main reason why this pupils want to go abroad is to see the world, discover new places, to take a break from school or just having fun.

Remember :

*	To check all the options and do not just pick one.
*	That you can try to talk to people who have experiences from living abroad.
*	Think carefully about what you want to do. If you want to experience the countries through college life, working life or threw taking care of sweet, little children.
*	When in Rome do as the Romans do. And think about, it is you who is the guest in that country.
*	There is always somebody you can turn to where you are, with questions or if you just want to talk to somebody. If you don’t want to talk to your landlord-family then you can talk to your contact- person and you can also turn to the church. If you are from Sweden you visit the Swedish church for example.