If you’re thinking of applying for a teaching assistant role but have no prior experience, don’t be put off applying.
Teaching assistants often come into their roles without on-the-job experience, but you do need to start with a very good CV to demonstrate that you’re capable of being competent in the role.
Follow these tips to write a standout teaching assistant CV that will show recruiters that you’re the perfect match for the job – despite having no experience:
Prove your enthusiasm for the role
In teaching, enthusiasm means everything.
Students pick up on enthusiasm and it helps to motivate them, so you need to make your passion for teaching shine through in your CV. What you lack in experience, you should try and make up for in enthusiasm, proving that you’re eager to work as a teaching assistant and have a huge desire to learn.
As well as explaining why you want to become a teaching assistant, you should what you like about the specific school you’re applying to. By visiting the school’s website and carrying out other research, you should be able to use some examples of what it is about the school that makes you want work there.
Search the live TA vacancies posted directly by schools
Pinpoint transferable skills from your previous work
When you don’t have any specific teaching experience, the best way to convince recruiters that you’re capable of doing the job is to refer to your transferable skills.
If you have a good standard of literacy and numeracy, for example, this should be included - it’s a key requirement for any teaching role. Use your qualifications or past work experience to give tangible evidence of these skills. For example, stating that you wrote detailed reports to tight deadlines in a previous role could help to solidify your literacy and time-management skills to recruiters.
Planning, creativity, organisation and administrative skills are also useful for a teaching assistant role, so it’s helpful to pinpoint examples of where you’ve applied these skills and add them into your CV.
Draw on other relevant experiences
If you have examples where you have worked with children in some capacity – such as kids’ club, sports teams or scouts - then do make sure to include it within your CV.
Even if you have helped to teach adults in an informal capacity, or have some experience in other informal educational settings, the experience is highly relevant, proves your enthusiasm and is sure to add value to your application.
Focus on your education
Teaching assistants need to have good reading, writing and numeracy skills, so draw upon your education and grades to highlight your skills in these areas.
Depending on the school level you are applying for, it may also be handy to include any IT qualifications or skills that you have.
Triple-check for spelling and grammar mistakes
Teaching assistants should be able to demonstrate good attention to detail, so make sure that you check, re-check and check again for spelling or grammar mistakes. After all, if you’ve referred to your great literacy skills but have then made errors, you’ll immediately discredit your claims.
If you have no experience in teaching assistant roles, you’ll still have a very good chance of impressing recruiters by incorporating your enthusiasm, transferable skills and relevant experiences into your CV.
About the author
Andrew Fennell
Andrew Fennell is the founder and director of StandOut CV, a leading UK careers advice website. He is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to publications like Business Insider, The Guardian, and The Independent.
