Your Resume: Education & Awards

What to include in the Education & Awards section of your Resume

May 26, 2007 Megan McConnell

The question is: just how far back do I show my education? And what about my other qualifications and awards?

In previous articles, we have looked at general formatting of your Resume, and what to include in the Personal Information section. This article looks at the next section in your resume – the Education and Qualifications section.

As with all of your resume, this should be listed in chronological order, with the most recent qualification first. The furthest back you should go is to your secondary (high) school, and then only mention the school you finished your highest qualification or year at.

An example of a good layout is:

2000 Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)

University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

1996 Certificate IV in Business

SouthBank TAFE, Brisbane, Australia

1994 Year 12

Ipswich Girls’ Grammar, Ipswich, Australia

As you can see, the layout is clean and it’s easy to see what you achieved, when and where. If you graduated with a Degree or higher in the last 2 years, attach the transcript of your results to the end of your resume. You should also include any training courses you have done through work, as well as any speciality licences or tickets.

Next, you should list your Achievements and Awards. Only list relevant ones – we don’t need to know you were the blackboard monitor at school, but you should include if you were School Captain.

Examples of things to include are:

  • First Aid Certificate
  • Lifesaving Certificates
  • Justice of the Peaceens’ Scout/Guide (or similar)
  • Bravery Awards
  • School Captain
  • National representative on sporting or other teams
  • Major Military decorations and ranks
  • Employee of the Month

All of these things give some insight into the type of person you are, and this can only help a prospective employer to come to a decision as to whether you are the right fit.

What can this information tell an employer about you

Firstly, it can tell the sort of environment you thrive in. If you play a lot of team sports at a representative level, it shows that you are an extremely good team player, and will work best as part of a team working towards a common goal. If you excel in activities where you are solo, or one on one, then it shows that you work best autonomously.

Both of these things are good – some jobs need teams and others need people who can work autonomously.

Likewise, military service and decorations, as well as bravery awards, can show your attitude to others. Bravery awards, especially, as well as several Scouting and Guide awards (like Queens Scout) show a person who thinks of others before themselves, and also a person who has a good set of moral ethics.

What your resume should convey is more than hard facts. It should also be able to give an insight into the person you are as regards how you view work and your place in the workplace. For this reason, including any Employee of the Month or similar awards is important. To win these, you usually have to have met a fairly strict set of guidelines. A prospective employer doesn’t need to know what the guidelines were, but the fact that you met them to merit award is important, and gives any employer reason to believe that you will be a hard and conscientious worker.

The copyright of the article Your Resume: Education & Awards in Career Advice is owned by Megan McConnell. Permission to republish Your Resume: Education & Awards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.