You’re looking for a new teaching role which means it’s time to start submitting a lot of application forms. Hopefully, you will have kept an up-to-date CV that you can refer back to but, if you haven’t then here’s how to get yourself back on track.

You know it’s going to need a bit of sprucing up, adding your last role, and few of your latest successes, but what can you do to make sure that you stand out from the competition.

We’ve given you the 5 top tips that we think you need to consider in order to get you ‘CV-ready’ for your next teaching role.

1. Update And Focus Your Summary

I see lots of CVs where the summary paragraph is like a mini story that lists basic and obvious skills that you would expect almost every teacher-candidate to have. Instead of touching on the generic points, really hone in on the relevant experience and qualifications that you have and touch on one or two significant successes that make you the obvious choice for the job.

2. State A Very Specific Career Goal

Remove any ad-hoc material within your CV and focus only on the areas that are relevant to the role that you are going for. You may think that by including a diverse range of successes you are widening your options, this simply isn’t the case. What you are in fact doing is diluting the focus of your CV and making you a less obvious choice.

3. Be Brief In Your Work History

Although you may have had a long of impressive responsibilities, more often than not it is the successes that you had that are of interest to an employer, and not how busy you were each day. Make sure that you include all of your relevant work experience, even if it dates back 10 to 15 years of your career, and be brief in describing your role and specific in describing your achievements.

4.Ensure Your Skills Are Up To Date

Listing your specific skills is important, especially if you want your application to stand out during a keyword scan by an ATS, however, make sure your skills are relevant to the role you are applying for, and be realistic. If you’re relevant skills section represents a shopping list with very little substance around the listed skills, chances are that the recruiter looking at your CV will do nothing more than cast an eye over it.

5. Be Selective With Your Education

When you are early in your career, GCSE and A level grades may be relevant, however, once you have gained 5, 6, or more years’ experience in the work place, these are less relevant. Stick to stating your university and recent relevant course achievements rather than what was achieved during your school days. Although education is important still, your successes within your working career will hold more weight.

If you are new to a role in teaching then you may have to consider mentioning the transferable and/or voluntary experience that you have acquired. However, the most important thing is that you explain what it is that you can bring to the teaching position and how that will benefit the employer, and show evidence where you have delivered what you say you can bring. This should put you in a very strong position when being considered for a teaching position.

Read ‘How to submit the perfect application form for a Teaching role’