Best Tips To Write Your CV For An Apprenticeship

Writing a CV for an apprenticeship can be a daunting task – especially if you’re new to job applications. Few of us feel comfortable with shouting about how good we are at something but that is in effect what a CV does; it provides you with an opportunity to list everything you’ve accomplished and talk about why you’d be a great apprentice.

What to include in a CV for an apprenticeship

While a good CV shouldn’t look too much like it’s been written to a template, some things should always be included when applying for an apprenticeship.

Personal details

Include details like your name, email, phone number and address. Use your name as the header of the document; it’s probably the most important piece of information on there.

Personal statement

Your personal statement is a paragraph that explains who you are, what you’re looking for and what makes you the ideal person to take on as an apprentice. 

Work experience

Even if you’ve only had weekend jobs or work experience from school, make sure you include it here with dates, job title, the name of your employer and a brief description of your main responsibilities. This will help an employer understand what skills you can bring to the apprenticeship and how you would operate in a business like theirs. Any volunteering experience relevant to the apprenticeship should also be included here. 

Education

Include details here of where you went to secondary school or college and list any qualifications (including grades) which you might have. If you don’t have any (or many) qualifications stay positive – a lot of employers will still be interested in hiring you as an apprentice if you have the right attitude – just ensure that the rest of your CV is strong.

Read more: How to get a job with limited skills and education

Achievements

If you’ve been on any training courses or hold qualifications not linked directly to education include details here – try to give examples of how the skills you’ve learned can be applied to the job you’re interested in.

Hobbies and Interests

You don’t have to include this, but if your interests and hobbies relate to the job then definitely add some details here. Hobbies and interests also provide talking points in your interview.

How to write a great apprenticeship CV

Be concise

Employers and recruiters have to look at lots of CVs when hiring apprentices so they don’t often have long to spend on each individual application. Make sure the most important information doesn’t get missed by keeping your CV concise – ideally no more than 2 pages!

Keep it relevant

As mentioned above, employers have a lot of information to process when they review apprenticeship applications so they often skim read, extract the key information, and don’t remember every little detail. Make your CV an easy stand-out by ensuring everything you include is relevant to the apprenticeship e.g. while you may be great at football, it’s not something you should talk about for an engineering application. 
Not only will keeping your CV relevant make it easy for recruiters to see why you’d be a good fit, but stripping out irrelevant information will help you keep it concise. 

Give evidence

Your CV is your chance to showcase the skills and qualities that would make you the perfect apprentice. However, every applicant will likely be trying to showcase similar skills so you will need to make your CV stand out by providing evidence that supports your claim. For example, rather than simply telling the recruiter that you are good at problem-solving, show them by writing about a specific situation when you used these skills. 
Giving evidence of your skills will give employers confidence that you’re not exaggerating, while also enabling them to envision the situations you’ve provided in their own businesses. 

Highlight voluntary experiences

Voluntary experience is a great way to bulk out your work experience section if you haven’t had much work before – but it’s also a great way to demonstrate that you are highly motivated to go above and beyond basic requirements. Motivation and passion are some of the main qualities employers look for in an apprentice. 

Tailor your CV to each apprenticeship

As time-saving as it might be to use the same version of your CV for all apprenticeship applications, you can actually lose out by doing this. When writing job adverts, employers will list specific requirements for the role and then use this list when skim reading applications to identify CVs that use those same (or similar words). For example, one employer might be looking for the word “hard-working” while the other may be looking for the word “committed”. Try to use the same language as the advert to help your CV get through the filtering process much more easily. 
It's also worth identifying any key characteristics or goals that the employer values so you can emphasise these in your personal statement. 

Proofread

Proofreading your CV is crucial, regardless of what industry your apprenticeship is in. From an employer's perspective, good spelling, grammar and punctuation show that candidates have a high level of care for the work they submit. Someone who has numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in their application is less likely to care about the apprenticeship role as much as someone who hasn’t. 

We offer apprenticeships, traineeships and courses in a wide range of career areas and levels. Browse the sectors we currently offer or call our team of advisors on 03333 222 666 who will be happy to answer all your questions.