17th November 2020

What Should Your CV Layout Be For Applying To A Job In The Education Sector?

Getting your CV layout right is the first step to making a great career move – you want your CV to showcase all the best things about your career so far and what you can offer a potential employer. We’ve put together this guide to creating a clear, correctly formatted CV for anyone to applying to roles in the education sector.

CV Layout Basics

Your CV should be written clearly, with sufficient white space and an easily-readable font such as Helvetica or Times New Roman. Margins should be decreased and sections should be clearly divided. White space in your CV layout makes it easier to read for recruiters who may be looking at hundreds per day! You don’t have to include a picture but lots of teachers chose to.

Name & Contact Details – Include a mobile number and email address so that recruiters can get in touch easily Personal Profile – Make sure to mention some key skills, your last role and what you are looking for in a new position Employment – Your most recent role should go at the top, with accurate dates in mm/yyyy format. Previous Roles – Include relevant roles that are less recent in descending order and try not to be repetitive, there’s no need to mention very similar responsibilities Education – Include all your relevant training and short summary of your academic qualifications

Your Personal Profile

This is your opportunity to tell a potential employer what skills you have that match their needs. You can tailor this section for every role that you apply for, highlighting skills or achievements that fit the job. It’s also a great idea to mention what you are looking for in a role, whether you are looking for progression into leadership or your teaching aspirations. Keep it short, positive and unique to you.

Employment History

This is the main body of your CV and should detail your relevant experience and the responsibilities, challenges and achievements you had there. Try to match some examples to the job description where you can. 3 – 5 bullet points is enough for each previous job. Here are some top tips from our in-house experts:

“It might help to write down everything you did and select the most vital or relevant 5 to create a bulleted list under your most recent employment.”

Joe Raffell, Head Of Education at Engage

“Have long paragraphs about your experience (other than your personal profile) – is hard for employers to pick out relevant experience “

Georgia Price, Talent Acquisition Leader at Engage

Education

Present clear information on your education – keep each part short. Include the school, what you studied and when and any qualifications that you received. If you have additional training or specialisms you should mention these here too.

These are just the very basic sections of your CV layout. You might consider adding further sections, highlighting a list of key skills for leadership roles, for example, or including your personal interests. Your CV shouldn’t go over three pages and if possible, should be kept to two!

We hope this guide has been helpful to you in crafting a great CV for teaching applications – if you want further reading on writing successful job applications, we’ve got some more in-depth guides:

• How To Write A Great CV For Teaching Roles
• How To Write A Great Cover Letter For Teaching Roles

More CV Inspiration

There are lots of inspiring CV examples, templates and tips on our dedicated Pinterest board, CV Examples For Teachers – follow Engage Education for daily updates!