Destinations® - Teaching materials
AS4 CV assignment
The CV (with or without covering letter) is one of the most common careers education assignments. Here we offer three ways of setting a CV assignment.
Each approach uses a different strategy to avoid some of the problems inherent in asking students to create a CV for assessment, notably:
1. Academic assessment awards marks against criteria, while employers also employ ‘positional’ criteria – eg. a specified number of the best candidates are selected for interview. Consequently with employers a ‘first class’ CV may be rejected for one position, while a ‘2.2’ CV may be successful elsewhere, simply due to the strength of the competition.
2. Students may feel that because they have produced a single ‘good’ CV at university they do not need to rewrite it for the employment market. It is important to strengthen the message that all CVs must be targeted to criteria by always asking students to produce a CV in the context of a job advert or person specification.
3. Some students may feel that they don’t have much to put on their CVs. The process of writing a CV may make it clear to them that they need to seek experience and develop their skills, but it can be disheartening to gain poor marks in spite of this acquired understanding. Thus students may find it helpful to be rewarded not only for the CV they produce, but also for identifying weaknesses in their CVs and recognising ways in which they can take action to improve them.
For each of the three examples, we have also included suggested marking criteria. However, you should feel free to develop your own marking criteria and also to format these criteria according to local practice at your own institution and for the students you are working with.
Example 1 – The targeted CV
See document AS4a. This exercise requires students to target their CV to a selection of posts provided by the course teacher. While ideally students might target their CV to any job of their choosing, in practice it is helpful for markers to restrict the number of job adverts available so that the assignment marker has a good knowledge of the skills required for the post and a clear understanding of the job advert or person specification.
Example 2 – Targeted CV and accompanying worksheet
See document AS4b. This exercise requires students to show some of their process in producing a CV and to demonstrate how it might be a targeted product. It gives students freedom to target their CV towards any job (unlike the targeted CV, above) provided they can identify the skills and competencies required for that post. This exercise also rewards students who recognise the weaknesses in their CVs – this makes it particularly suitable for any cohort where there may be students with limited work experience or other experiences to draw on. It therefore encourages reflection about improving the quality of the CV.
Version 3 – Two targeted CVs
See document AS4c. This exercise requires students to produce two CVs for two different posts, and thus to work at tailoring their information and experiences for different audiences. Consequently, the marking criteria for this example focus upon the targeting, presentation and manipulating of the experiences and skills cited in each CV. Details of the posts that might be given to students have not been included in these instructions. However for a successful assignment they might include:
· Two graduate jobs linked to the students degree subject
· Two graduate jobs that do not require a specific degree subject
· Two work experience posts
· A postgraduate course linked to the students’ degree subject
· A postgraduate course not linked to the students’ degree subject
Other ideas
These assignments could also include covering letters with the CVs.
The philosophy behind these assignments can also be used for application forms: eg. students can write an application form targeted at a job, or complete two forms for two different jobs, or write a commentary on a targeted form.
©University of Reading 2007