The Resume
A resume, which is sometimes referred to as a CV or curriculum vitae, is a document that you use to showcase your skills, education, work experience and achievements. Resumes are essential for most job applications as they give potential employers an insight into your skills, interests, and abilities.
Your resume should include personal details such as your name and contact details, a career objectives or summary, previous education, and work experience. It can also include key skills, strengths, interests and references. If you have any licences or tickets that are relevant to the roles you are applying for (e.g. a white card or working with children check) you should also list these. Your resume can be used for multiple applications but make sure that the details are relevant to the role that you're applying for.
If your apprenticeship is the first job you are applying for, you can list skills and experience gained through other education including school, though sports or other clubs, and through volunteer work or work experience.
“Most of the apprentices we employ are in engineering and electrical trades. If someone doesn’t have work experience there are other ways of promoting yourself. We look at whether people have relevant hobbies. If so, photos of the work they have done is very useful. We look at whether they've done volunteer work, or if they were in the Army Reserve, or the Scouts? Have they had any leadership roles, e.g. school captain, or vice-captain of the footy team? Have they worked in the family business?” Said Peter Canavan from AiGroup.
Career-changers or mature apprentices should leave out anything that’s not relevant to the apprenticeship or consider using a skills-first resume where they highlight skills first and then go into a short write-up about their work experience.