Personal details
It’s important that you start your education CV with your personal information. Your name should be the header, followed by your job title and contact details. Avoid wasting space by labelling it ‘CV’ or ‘Curriculum Vitae’. Recruiters will already know what this is.
Keep this section as short as possible, including only the necessary information. Below is an example of what this might look like:
Full name
Professional title
Location: Town, county
Phone number: 01234 56789
Email address: name@example.co.uk
Remember that your email address needs to look professional. Otherwise, you could be damaging your chances of landing the job right from the start! It’ best to stick with your name where possible, avoiding silly or confusing addresses such as thehappyninja827@hotmail.co.uk.
Personal profile
One of the most important parts of your education CV is your personal profile. This appears underneath your contact information. This section can be tricky! It shouldn’t be more than a few sentences long, but you really need to sell yourself.
Be sure to outline three key points: where you are in your career (are you starting out or are you a seasoned professional), your key achievements to date and your career goals.
This paragraph should outline your top qualities and explain what motivates you. This sounds like a lot, but you need to keep it short and sweet. Once you’ve written a few ideas down, look through and cut out any of the waffle or unnecessary information.
Employment history
Depending on where you are in your career, you may have varying levels of experience. Your employment history is your chance to shout about your previous roles or work experience you have undergone.
In this section of your education CV, make sure you only include relevant experience. You should list these in reverse chronological order. Include the name of the company, the dates you worked there and your key achievements and responsibilities. This should look something like this:
Company name, location | Dates you were employed here
Job title:
- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Key achievements:
- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Be careful not to treat this as a long list of your daily responsibilities. You need to demonstrate how you contributed to the business, outlining your top achievements. If you can back these up with figures, even better!
If you’re just starting out in your career, you should focus on any work experience you’ve had in the past. This includes any volunteering you may have done.
Education/qualifications
Next, you need to add your credentials. There are a number of requirements when it comes to landing an education role. It’s likely that you’ll have a relevant degree, PGCE and/or have taken some SKE courses.
These will follow a similar layout to your employment history and will need to be in reverse chronological order.
As well as including the basic information, you can boost your education CV by referring to any modules or extra qualifications you took that you think will benefit you in the role. See the example below:
Institution name | Dates you attended
Subject name – grade achieved
- Module X
- Module Y
Skills
Next on your CV is the skills section. As an education professional, employers may expect you to have a huge number of technical skills (depending on the position). But, as technology is such a huge part of today’s society, it’s good to outline where you’re proficient and how you can incorporate these into your job role.
Most of all you need to shout about the important soft skills you possess. Communication is a very big part of working in education, alongside organisation, problem solving, creativity, adaptability and patience.
Take some time to look over the job description to see exactly what the employer is looking for, and list your skills accordingly.
Hobbies and Interests
This section is optional depending on how much space you have, and whether your hobbies and interests are relevant to the role. While it’s great that you love astronomy and are a keen gym-goer, this is unlikely to help you land the job.
If you have a particular interest that you think could be beneficial, then include just a few sentences about what these are and why they make you great for the role. For example, you may be an English Teacher that has their own teaching blog.
References
References is the final section on your CV. You can save space by simply writing ‘references upon request’ under this section. Recruiters can ask you for the full details should they want to get in touch with your previous employers.
Do’s and don’ts of an education CV
Below, we’ve included a list of our top do’s and don’ts for your education CV, outlining how to lay it out and what you shouldn’t be including.
1. Do – Keep it clear and concise
Your CV needs to be easy to read. Choose a clear font, something like Calibri or Ariel and make sure it’s not too small! Font size 12 should be about right.
2. Don’t – Include unnecessary information
You’d be surprised how much information people are willing to include on their CV. You don’t need to put down your age, date of birth, marital status, ethnicity or your full address. Just stick with the basic information.
3. Do – Keep it short and sweet
Your CV should be no longer than two pages. Recruiters are busy people and they aren’t going to want to sift through pages and pages of content.
4. Don’t – Get too creative
While it’s tempting to pick a creative layout to try and stand out, be careful not to be too unique. These creative layouts can sometimes become too distracting or busy, putting recruiters off right from the start.
In summary
Your education CV needs to carefully outline your relevant experience and qualifications. Alongside this, it needs to show how these can help you in the role you’re applying for. Be sure to keep it clear and concise and really sell yourself in your personal profile. Perfecting your CV before you begin will stand you in good stead on your job search.
Perfected your education CV? It’s time to upload and it and start searching for jobs!
