Every year around one million people in the UK say they’d be interested in taking a gap year, but only a fraction of those people end up taking one.

A large proportion of these people give up because they think they can’t cover the costs but gap year experts say the cost of a gap year need not stop anyone.

“One of the most frustrating things is hearing people say they can’t afford a gap year, when I see thousands of people every year doing it,” said Tom Griffiths, founder of gap year organisation gapyear.com.

Gap years usually cost between £3,000 and £4,000 - costs vary depending on whether you travel, volunteer or work or do any of those in combination. This can be a menacing amount for students who may already be snowed under with loans or school leavers without much experience in the world of work, but it is rare for people to finish their year out with greater debt than when they started.

Raising the money may be easier than you think: six months of working full-time with an hourly wage of £5 per hour before, minus tax, assuming you save it all would raise over £3,000.

Choosing a gap year which includes work as well as travel gives the added luxury of not having to cover all your costs before you go - you can replenish your funds by working during the year.

Laura Bryne, a PGCE English student at the University of Exeter, took a gap year in 2003, spending six months living on a kibbutz, a collective community, in Israel.

“I worked in England for a few months and saved enough money to buy a ticket to go out there, with about £500 spare,” she explained. “As a volunteer on a kibbutz you get room and board and often a very meagre wage, but you don't need much to live quite comfortably.”

Many students use their year out to support a volunteering project abroad. For students still in full-time education, working five days a week is not an option, so charity fundraising is a way of covering the costs.

There are countless examples of students using their initiative to think up original ideas to raise money. They range from the physically challenging like swimming the distance of the English Channel or running a half marathon to the ridiculous, like the girl who sat in a bath of cat food for an hour and managed to raise £1,200, according to Griffiths.

“If you stay local, looking for support from people in the local pub or kebab shop, then people will give to you if you offer something interesting and worthwhile,” Griffiths advised.

But the gains of fundraising for a gap year extend beyond the short term advantages.

Times recommends

• 'Quack' degrees will damage our university say academics
• Graduate gains wiped out by student debt says report
• Creative degrees ‘must be treated like science’