In message , at 13:29:40 on Thu, 9 Apr 2015,
tim..... remarked:
The gap years I've heard about aren't leisure. They are a form of
sandwich course - probably no longer available.

Having recently taken an interest in "employing" sandwich students,
most unis [1] now offer them as an optional part of appropriate
(usually engineering) degrees.

If you can find an appropriate placement, you work the third year of
your degree and take your finals in the fourth. If you can't, you just
take your finals in the third year.

I understand about those arrangements, but they are very different to
the ones I was describing.
--
Roland Perry