school leaver job cover letter

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School Leaver Job Application Covering Letter Example

By Guest Author

Writing a cover letter for the job role as a School Leaver.

If you’ve left school you’re probably wondering what to do next. If you have been put off university by the high tuition fees then there are lots of options open to you. These can include Apprenticeships, Office Junior roles and Retail. There may also Trainee roles available within specific organisations, depending on the career path you are looking to take and depending on the GCSE / A Level grades achieved.

Duties to Expect:

Depending on the sector, the role may also include many of the following…Observing members of staff to learn about the company Assisting with the maintenance of the office environment Dealing with incoming and outgoing post and filing paperwork Stock replenishment Making tea and coffee for staff members Cleaning duties Photocopying and printing various documents on behalf of other colleagues.

School Leaver Covering Letter Example

Dear Recruitment Manager,

I am writing to apply for the position of (Job Title) as advertised (where you saw job advertisement).

Having recently completed my secondary education, and achieving A-Levels in Business Studies, ICT and English, I am now keen to put my studies to practical use within an organisation that I admire.

My key skills include organisation, communication, working to deadlines and i have gained experience within the retail sector gained from two years part-time, where I eventually managed small teams over the busy summer and Christmas periods.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to consider my application. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any further questions.

Applicant Name

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Crafting an Effective School Leaver Cover Letter

Table of contents.

Embarking on your journey as a school leaver can be exhilarating, but navigating the job market requires thoughtful preparation, especially when it comes to crafting a compelling cover letter. Whether you are applying for your first job or seeking an apprenticeship, a well-crafted cover letter can significantly enhance your chances of securing an interview. Here are essential tips for crafting a standout school leaver cover letter:

1) Emphasise Your Motivation:

Begin your cover letter by expressing your enthusiasm for the position and the company. Highlight why you are passionate about entering the workforce or pursuing an apprenticeship in your chosen field. Communicate your eagerness to learn and grow professionally, demonstrating your proactive attitude and commitment to success.

2) Showcase Relevant Skills and Experiences:

Although you may not have extensive work experience, highlight relevant skills, achievements, and extracurricular activities from your time in school or any part-time roles. Discuss projects, coursework, or volunteer experiences that demonstrate your ability to work well in a team, problem-solve, communicate effectively, and take initiative. Use specific examples to illustrate your capabilities and potential value to the employer.

3) Tailor Your Letter to the Job:

Customise your cover letter for each application by addressing the specific requirements and responsibilities outlined in the job description. Research the company and its industry to understand its values, culture, and goals. Align your skills and experiences with the needs of the employer, emphasising how you can contribute to their success. Personalising your letter demonstrates your genuine interest in the role and organisation.

4) Highlight Your Education and Future Goals:

As a school leaver, your education and future aspirations are key selling points. Highlight relevant coursework, certifications, or academic achievements that are applicable to the position. Discuss your long-term career goals and how the role aligns with your ambitions. Communicate your eagerness to develop new skills, gain practical experience, and advance in your chosen field.

5) Demonstrate Professionalism and Attention to Detail:

Ensure your cover letter is well-written, concise, and error-free. Use professional language and formatting, and address the recipient by name if possible. Proofread your letter carefully to eliminate any spelling or grammatical errors. Pay attention to details such as formatting, margins, and font size to ensure a polished presentation. A professionally crafted cover letter demonstrates your professionalism and attention to detail, leaving a positive impression on potential employers.

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School leaver CV examples + guide

You’re leaving school and you need to write a CV to land your first job… Exciting times!

But you probably have no idea how to write a CV, or perhaps you aren’t even sure what a CV is.

But don’t worry…

I’ve created this mega guide to writing a school leaver CV, which includes 4 school leaver CV examples and a step-by-step guide to writing your own.

So, you can create a winning CV that will attract employers and get you plenty of interviews, even if you have no work experience.

CV templates 

School leaver CV example

Build your CV now 

School leaver CV (with no experience)

School leaver CV (with part time experience)

College leaver CV

What is the purpose of your CV?

The ultimate purpose of your CV is to secure job interviews for you.

Think of it as a leaflet for your services; advertising your skills and knowledge to potential employers.

You create your CV and promote it out in the job market to get noticed by firms you want to work for.

If an employer likes your CV, they will call you and invite you in for an interview

So as you can imagine, it needs to look professional and read extremely well if it’s going to be effective.

Who will read your CV?

Your CV will mainly be read by hiring managers and recruiters .

When you apply for a job online, recruiters will review your CV to find out if you have the requirements they are looking for to fill their vacancy

If your CV makes a good impression, then the recruiter will call you with a view to book you in for an interview, or pass your CV on to the hiring manager.

Recruiters and managers tend to be very busy and often have to review hundreds of CVs every week – so your CV needs to grab their attention and explain your value quickly.

What makes a good school leaver CV?

What makes a good CV?

A good CV is one that quickly shows recruiters and managers that you have all the necessary skills and knowledge required to perform their vacant role – it’s that simple, and it shouldn’t be over complicated.

If your CV can do this, you will generate lots of interest and interview requests from employers.

It needs to be clearly structured and formatted – and the content should explain to readers why you are a good candidate for the job being advertised.

What if you have no work experience?

Don’t worry too much about having little or no work experience.

We all have to start somewhere and plenty of  students are able to find jobs straight from school at 16 years old , without experience or contacts.

You just have to be a little more creative when writing your CV and draw transferable skills out from things like school/university projects, qualifications, hobbies, extracurricular activities , volunteer work and part-time work.

Using a blend of structure , formatting , language and content, anyone can write an attractive CV.

I will cover how to do this in more detail, in the “ How to write a school leaver CV ” section

What should you put in your CV?

When you are new to the world of work, it can be difficult to know what information you should include in your CV.

So before you start writing your CV, it’s wise to do some research and find out exactly what your target employers are looking for in a candidate.

So head over to a job website and run a search for the type of job you are looking for

You can use a site like CV Library  (it will open in a separate window)

Then look through 10 or more job adverts and make a list of the most important candidate requirements that keep appearing.

Requirements will include things like:

• Qualifications – GCSE’s, A-levels, Degrees etc.
• Soft skills – Communication, leadership, organisation etc.
• Hard skills – Literacy, numeracy, languages etc.
• IT capabilities – Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop etc.
• Industry knowledge/experience – Accountancy, marketing, design etc.
• Extra-curricular activities – Sports, hobbies, personal projects etc.

Now that you have an extensive list of the things that your target employers are looking for, you know exactly what you should be highlighting in your CV.

You probably won’t possess all of the requirements, but you should always refer to this list when writing your CV, and try to demonstrate as many as you can.

Quick Tip: In some cases where you don’t have a particular requirement, it can be beneficial to show that you are working towards it. For example if a job advert is asking for basic HTML knowledge and you don’t have it – start taking an online course  on the subject and include it in your CV.

How to write a school leaver CV

Now that you have seen some example CVs, here’s how to write your own interview-winning school leaver CV.

CV structure and format

Start of by working to the following structure:

CV formatting tips

• Use a simple clear font – Ensure that employers can read your CV without any confusion
• The colour scheme should be plain with black text on a white background creating the easiest reading experience.
• Text should be broken up  as much as possible to ensure that busy recruiters and hiring managers can digest the information quickly
• Use big bold headings  to clearly define sections and break the information up further

Name, title and contact details

Head your CV up with you name in bold and a professional title that relates to your field.

Put your contact details just underneath your name so that it’s easy for recruiters to get in touch with you.

• Phone number
• Email address
• Location (no need to put your full address – general area where you live or are willing to work is fine)
• Link to LinkedIn profile (optional if you have a one and it’s good enough to share)

Take up as little space as possible with your contact details to save room on your CV.

If you have no work experience; check out my video guide to writing a CV when you have no experience

CV Profile/Personal Statement

Your CV profile or personal statement is your opening pitch to recruiters and employers.

It will be the first thing they read upon opening your CV, so you need to give them some good reasons to be interested in you.

Ideally, you want to summarise the skills you have to offer an employer, in a way which reflects the qualities that they are looking for in a candidate – so again you should be referring to the list you made earlier.

Good things to include are;

• Your highest academic achievements –  A Level in maths,  10 GCSEs A-C
• IT Package proficiency – Word, Excel, Photoshop
• Any experience that could be relevant to your target roles – School projects, voluntary work, work placements, personal projects or pursuits
• Relevant hard skills – Languages, literacy, numeracy
• Relevant soft skills – Communication, motivation, teamwork, personal skills

Take a look at the example CV profile below

This person is a school leaver with A-levels who is applying for office based sales roles .

They have no office based sales work experience .

However, they do have some part time supermarket cashier experience which involves some of the same skills and experience. So they have really taken advantage of that.

The trick is to write for the job you want , not the job you have. Really sell yourself to the reader.

Many school leavers think that their part time jobs in bars and retail stores bear no relevance to the jobs they apply for when they start working full time.

However there a lot of transferable skills that you can include in your CV, and by using the right language, you can create a very professional image with them – like the above.

Quick tip: A poorly written CV will fail to impress recruiters and employers. Use our quick-and-easy CV Builder to create a winning CV in minutes with professional templates and pre-written content for every industry.

Core skills & achievements

In order to give recruiters a very quick glimpse of your skills, use a bullet pointed core skills and achievements section.

As I mentioned earlier, recruiters and managers tend to be very busy – so a bullet pointed list of valuable skills and achievements can give them a really quick snapshot of your talents, and encourage them to read the rest of your CV in full.

If you have carried out some notable projects that relate to your target roles, then it would be worth setting up a section underneath your core skills to list them like in the example school leaver CV above – but don’t worry too much if you haven’t.

If like most school leavers, you do not have any direct work experience in the field you are applying to, I would recommend listing your education next.

Start with your most recent qualification and work backwards to your earliest.

Include plenty of detail to compensate for your lack of work experience – especially if your education can be related to the jobs you are applying for.

However, if you do have some relevant work experience, then place your work history above your education.

Work experience

Work history is an area that many school leavers struggle with as they often work part-time jobs that they feel will not look impressive on their CV.

However, your work experience (no matter how unimportant you think it may be) gives you a great opportunity to demonstrate a lot of important skills that are required for nearly all jobs.

Things like:

• Communication
• Working with customers
• Organisation

They also give you an opportunity to show off your written language skills.

The below is a role description for a part time job working at a cafe –

Basic CV template

Start with the dates, company and role title.

Quick Tip: you can tweak the role title to sound as professional as you like. E.g. don’t write “Shelf Stacker” – instead go with something like “Shop Floor Operative” or “Sales Assistant”  so that you appear as professional as possible.

Then provide an outline of the role that summarises the role and company as well as showing where you sit within the organisation’s hierarchy.

Then bullet-point your responsibilities in a way that demonstrates your valuable workplace skills.

Where possible try to show how your actions contribute to the success of the employer.

For example, instead of simply saying:

“Monitoring and replenishing stock levels”

Expand on that point and say:

“Monitoring and replenishing stock levels to ensure customers have access to all products and more stock is sold throughout the week”

This shows how important you are to the running of the business and how valuable you could be to an employer.

Hobbies and interests

When you lack work experience, your hobbies can be a great way to demonstrate some more of your talents.

Good hobbies to list are:

Work related interests – For example, if you are an aspiring web designer and have created a website in your spare time, then provide a link to the site – Or if you are applying for science related jobs and carry out your own research in your spare time, then tell readers about it.

Big achievements – Perhaps you’ve run a marathon, played for the school football team or competed in national chess competition – these types of activities show motivation and determination, so get them onto your CV.

Charitable work – Any kind of fund raising or volunteer work you undertake for charitable causes look great on your CV because they show you are willing to help others and often involve lots of organisation and planning.

Don’t list common hobbies like “ watching TV ” or “hanging out with friends” as they are unlikely to impress employers.

Writing a school leaver CV – Conclusion

Using the above advice you should be able to create an effective school leaver CV that will make a big impression on recruiters and ensure that you get invited to plenty of interviews.

Remember to keep the format easy-to-read and always tailor the content to match the demands of the employers you are applying to.

Also, check out our graduate CV and  example customer service CV and writing guide.

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Recent school leaver – marketing assistant cover letter

Use this as an example cover letter for someone who has recently left or graduated from school.

Get inspired

This example is based on Lachlan Nguyen, who graduated with his Higher School Certificate and is applying for a Junior Marketing Assistant role with an agency. It shows how to use previous work and experience to show your suitability for a position.

Visit Lachlan's profile for all his application documents and the corresponding job advertisement. 

This document is intended for inspiration and guidance only. Tailor it to highlight your unique skills and experiences that align with the role you’re applying for – don’t copy directly .

It is based on a fictional persona  – any similarity to an actual person is coincidental and unintended.

This document is formatted in Microsoft Word.

If you don’t have access to Microsoft Word:

create a free Microsoft OneDrive account to view and edit the document online 

use other free tools such as Google Docs (included with a Gmail account) or LibreOffice (a free open-source office application suite) 

Apple users can open this document using the Pages app . 

If you have any accessibility feedback or concerns related to this resource, please contact us .

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School Leaver Cover Letter

• Last updated 12 Aug 2016

For some school leaver programmes, you might be required to send in a more traditional cover letter and CV, rather than tackle the slalom of online applications.

In any case, knowing how to put together an effective cover letter is a good skill to have.

So how can you write this tricky little critter of a school leaver cover letter? How can you avoid descending into cliché? What the heck do you put in it? Don’t fret! We’ve got the answers.

How do I write a school leaver cover letter?

The trick is to channel a bit of Beyoncé (no, that doesn’t mean you have to learn the Single Ladies dance) - tell them: "Baby it's you, you're the one I want". 

To do that, every school leaver cover letter you write should be tailored to the company and the school leaver programme you are applying for. Sending off the same old cover letter to everybody won’t impress.

To construct a beautifully tailored cover letter, you’ll need to do your research. Find out exactly what the company does, what it values and what makes it different.

You can look at its website, follow the company on Twitter or Facebook, and read any articles you can find about the firm. We also have employer profiles that you can check out! 

School leaver cover letter mistakes

How to sell yourself .

The second stage of your research will involve scrutinising the school leaver opportunity on offer. Find out what it’ll involve and what kind of candidate they are looking for.

Nowadays, most people send their cover letter via email . Paper cover letters usually include the company’s address, your address and the date at the top, but you can leave these out if you’re sending it via email.

However, your email should still feel like a formal letter and be written in a professional style. It needs to be relatively concise, about three to four short paragraphs long.

It should start “Dear…” and end “Yours sincerely” if it’s being sent to a named person; if you haven’t managed to find out a name then use: “Yours faithfully” followed by your name.

Try and find out who will be reading your school leaver cover letter, so you can address your school leaver cover letter to a named person. To find out, you could give the company a call and ask them who will be receiving your cover letter.  

Let’s get down to business…

The key to writing an effective school leaver letter is to think about the expectations of the reader. Most likely, they’ll be looking for answers to the following questions:

1) Who are you and why are you writing to me?

2) Why are you interested in my company and the school leaver programme?

3) Why should you be interviewed for the job? What skills do you have that will make you an asset to the company and the school leaver programme?

You could use your first paragraph to answer the first question, your second paragraph to answer the second question and your third paragraph to answer the last question. Got it? Good.

First Paragraph 

Right, let’s start with that all-important first paragraph. Recruiters read a lot of cover letters and, quite frankly, they’ll see the same stock phrases cropping up all the time. Try and think of different ways of formulating your sentences to pique their interest.

Just because you need to keep it formal, it doesn’t mean you can assail them with dull and lifeless prose.

You might want to use the first paragraph to introduce yourself, tell them what school leaver opportunity you are interested in and perhaps provide a unique reason why their company appeals to you.

...and the rest

Use the next paragraph to expand on why you’re interested in the company, the school leaver programme and the industry. Again, try to come up with some different and genuine reasons.

One of the trickiest parts of the letter to write will be the section where you detail the attributes and skills that you feel will make you a strong candidate for the school leaver programme.

In all likelihood, the employer will have a list of competencies that they are looking for. You need to tell them that you have these qualities, but you also need to provide evidence of them by providing brief examples.

If you don’t have much work experience (they won’t be expecting you to), you can draw examples from your studies and extra-curricular activities.

Finally…

Proofread it. Proofread it again. You don’t want all that hard work to be undone by a silly typo, a lazy spelling mistake or an unfortunate grammatical error. Make sure you've got the dos and don'ts of grammar down to a tee. 

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