Creating a CV - Teacher’s notes - Pre-intermediate to Advanced (B1 to C1)

Sep 13, 2026

Teacher’s notes for an employability-skills lesson focused on creating a CV for work experience placements and internships. The materials support learners in gathering and organizing information, writing transferable skills in note form, and clarifying personal identity and values. Guidance includes vocabulary on transferable skills, job requirements, and CV meaning, plus classroom procedure for group brainstorming, discussion, and worksheet-based tasks. Tailoring CV content is emphasized to improve success in applications and speculatively requested opportunities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResumes

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time1 min

AccessFree to download

Creating a CV

Lesson Overview

Materials and Key Terms

Procedure and Classroom Steps

Speculative Applications and Tailoring

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLSCREATING ACV Creating a CV Level: Pre-intermediate –Advanced CEFR level: B1 to C1 Time: Approximately 90 minutes Language objectives: Creating a CV. This activity is ideally intended for learners who are applying for work experience placements or internships. Key life skills: Gathering and organising information, writing in note form about transferable skills, personal identity, and values Materials: One copy of the ‘Creating a CV’ worksheet per student, flipchart paper or large sheets of paper to write on Teacher’s notes Glossary: Lesson stages Transferable skills: skills that can be used for different jobs and roles e.g. IT, teamwork, sales Job requirements: the description of the job and what the employer is looking for in a candidate CV: curriculum vitae – the “story” of your life, also called résumé Speculative application / to apply on spec: A speculative application or applying on spec involves sending a CV and covering letter to an employer asking whether they have any jobs or work experience opportunities your skills could fill, even if you haven’t seen a position being advertised. Procedure: Ideally learners should be creating CVs and cover letters for jobs, work experience opportunities, or internships that they are actually interested in applying for or intend to apply for. To that end, learners should already have conducted some initial research into their chosen industry or company to identify work-placement or internship opportunities or gathered some background information in order to demonstrate a genuine interest in doing work experience in that company. Alternatively, if you have less teaching time or learners are not yet applying for placements, it is worth looking at some examples of how companies advertise work experience and internship opportunities, and discussing how people applying ‘on spec’ can sometimes successfully gain jobs or placements. You can also discuss opportunities for getting access to such opportunities through networking. Here are some useful links for internships and work experience placements. Learners should be encouraged to look at these or find other suitable ones, and to download application packs where applicable. The aim is for learners to gain a good understanding of the application process and how tailoring or adapting their CV content to be more specific to a particular job or industry can increase the chance of being successful. [www.totalprofessions.com/university-students/work-placements](www.totalprofessions.com/university-students/work-placements)[-various industries](-various industries)[ ](-various industries)[www.e4s.co.uk/docs/internships.htm](www.e4s.co.uk/docs/internships.htm-various)[-various](www.e4s.co.uk/docs/internships.htm-various) industries [http://joinus.barclays.com/emea/internships/](http://joinus.barclays.com/emea/internships/ -banking)[ ](http://joinus.barclays.com/emea/internships/ -banking)[-banking](http://joinus.barclays.com/emea/internships/ -banking)[ ](http://joinus.barclays.com/emea/internships/ -banking)[http://internship-uk.com/Catering_Hospitality.asp](http://internship-uk.com/Catering_Hospitality.asp-various)[-various](http://internship-uk.com/Catering_Hospitality.asp-various)[ ](http://internship-uk.com/Catering_Hospitality.asp-various)industries including hospitality, event management and media 1. Ask learners to get into groups of three or four and distribute flipchart / large sheets of paper to each group. 2. Ask learners to brainstorm their answers to the question:“What are the ingredients for success in applying for work experience or an internship?” Responses could include‘interpersonal skills’,‘transferable skills’,‘interest’ etc. Give learners five minutes to work in their groups and write down as many ideas they can think of. 3. Put the completed flipcharts up on the walls and ask the groups to talk about what they have written. The purpose here is to gauge awareness of thi

FAQs

What is the aim of the “Creating a CV” activity?

Learners use the activity to create a CV for work experience placements or internships they want to apply for, focusing on organizing information and presenting transferable skills clearly.

What are transferable skills in this lesson?

Transferable skills are skills that can be used for different jobs and roles, such as IT, teamwork, and sales.

How should learners approach tailoring their CV for success?

Learners should research the industry or company first, then adapt CV content to be more specific to a particular job or industry to increase the chance of being successful.

Sep 13, 2026

Upload by Riley West