To be clear: we are not talking about school trips or family holidays, nice though they are. Those are passive experiences in which you are largely the object. Of course, provided you are not just lying on a beach, you may learn something factual, such as the history and geography of the country; or aesthetic, developing your taste for the physical culture of the place.

But you don’t get much opportunity to meet local people apart from simple transactions in shops or restaurants where you might practice a few phrases of a foreign language, if you’re lucky. And you can ignore as much of it as you like, because you take important parts of your everyday environment with you (family, friends, teachers). Think of groups of bored French teenagers in the National Gallery.

Organised small group expeditions or projects (helping to build a classroom in Africa, say) can be amazing and life-changing in their way. But while young people learn about the virtue of charity, they also tend to return with the thought “now I know how lucky I am”. There is an inherent inequality in the process, an abiding sense of privilege.

Truly international

Real travel begins when you leave all that behind – when you become the active subject of the experience. You have to interact with your environment, communicate with others, express yourself culturally. Solo gap year travel qualifies, but the backpacker mentality can also be slightly self-centred and more often than not the friends you meet along the way will be other westerners on the same kind of journey.

The best kind of international activity not only takes you away from your everyday environment but also mixes you up on a completely equal footing with people from other cultures, learning together and learning from one another. This could be a course, an extended voluntary service or work experience, or a project where young people come together to work for a shared objective on a theme of common interest.

Taking the first step

It doesn’t matter whether the journey is long or short, or the destination near or far: the important thing is having the motivation to set out in the first place, leaving behind the familiar and easy, and seeking out things which are difficult and new. Above all, this means leaving your old self behind. Then there is no looking back, and often the harder part is coming home and finding that you are not who you were and the people who stayed behind appear different because they haven’t changed.

Travel has become time travel. Time travellers of this kind have transcended their past selves. They are no longer passive objects who can only describe what they have seen. They are active participants in their own lives with a story to tell about who they are, and a vision of who they will become. That’s why employers want them. They are different. They have the edge.

Andrew’s international vision is at the heart of MyCareerBox. Get in touch to secure a place on the next program, and discover the extraordinary added value of “international”.