CV Tips for Vocational Students

Here at the University of Cumbria, we have a large numbers of students on vocational courses – teachers, nurses, allied health professionals and the like, who often ask for help in compiling their CV as they apply for their first professional post.

Over time it has struck me that CVs for all the vocational students I encounter have several features in common. I would like to share them with you now, working through each of the key CV headings:


Personal Details

A key point for new entrants to a profession is, if possible to include your professional registration details with your basic contact information. This will be in the form of a registration or pin number supplied by the professional body you need to register with, such as the UK General Teaching Councils, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, etc. If you do not yet have the number at the time of application, you should say “Registration Number Awaited” or similar.

Incidentally, if you are not yet applying for professional posts but are trying to find placements half way through your course, it is a good idea to quote your CRB registration details here if you are looking for placements that involve contact with young people or vulnerable adults.


Summary Statements

A snappy summary, often written in brief phrases (rather than full sentences) below your contact details is worth considering for almost any CV but of particular value for vocational students. Include two or three adjectives that sum up your key skills as a practitioner and say something about what sort of post you are looking for. If you feel you can, you might wish to mention aspects of the career that particularly interest you, or in which you might want to specialise later.



Education

A common mistake here is simply to put the details of your vocational degree and possibly a grade forecast and leave it at that.

It is important with a vocational degree to add a bit of commentary about your degree as employers may well want to ask you about it at interview.

Angles you could consider here are:

* Listing key module titles (but keep it short!)
* Parts of the course that fascinated you or represented major leaps forward in your learning
* Aspects of the course that you know to be excellent in comparison to those offered elsewhere

You might want to have an extra entry or section to cover any additional in-service training or certificates you took as a result of doing the course.


Employment

It is vital to include some detail here on any course placements or periods of work experience you have undertaken, and some comment showing the activities you undertook and/or skills you acquired on each. If you have undertaken a large number of placements, you may want to consider a separate heading for them (e.g. “Placement Experience” as distinct from “Other Work Experience”).

If you have done a large number of short or variable duration placements with the same employer, don’t feel obliged to list them all individually. It’s OK to put the name of the organisation, the period during which you undertook placements there and the total time you were on placement there altogether (e.g. October 2008 – April 2011 : Total 14 weeks).


Interests and Achievements

There is a little ambiguity here as some employers (notably schools) want to hear details of outside interests that might have relevance in the workplace, whereas others merely want to see some evidence that you are a ‘rounded person’ who has interests outside the work arena. The only real way forward is to try and suss out what the expectations are likely to be, if possible.

This is also the ideal place to put your driving licence details, essential if the job you are applying for requires the use of a car.


References

For completing students generally and fledgling professionals in particular, the golden rule is to give one reference from the academic sphere (e.g. personal tutor or course leader) and one from the world of work. Most normally the world of work reference will come from a recent placement, but the key thing is that you pick the referee who will give you the most glowing endorsement.


Last of All

CVs are typical of virtually everything to do with careers. Advisers try to make things as ‘scientific’ as possible by formulating a set of rules for you to follow. Unfortunately the science can all break down when your CV is read by a human being rather than a robot, as there is no accounting for the unpredictability of human behaviour or the capacity of individuals to behave in an unscientific manner.

However, if you follow the tips above, you will be on the right lines – more or less.

For a series of websites on CVs bookmarked by University of Cumbria Careers Advisers, see http://delicious.com/skillzone/cv