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Using Your YSIS Experience to Get a Job

YSIS tutors and mentors not only help schools, teachers and school students but also help themselves. They are given the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills that are desirable to recruiters from almost any market sector. The following advice has been written for YSIS by Claire Rees, director of the Careers Service.

Marketing your YSIS experience

An effective CV or application form outlines the skills, experience, and qualifications most relevant to the job for which you are applying. Employers do not have time to try and think about what you may or may not have gained from your extra-curricular activities or part-time job etc. It's up to you make sure you clearly identify want you have to offer. The Careers Service has a wide range of resources to help you make good applications and further information about what's available can be found on our website:

Careers Service resources for current students >

Making experience work

Your involvement with York Students In Schools should have given you a range of experiences which you need to market when making an application. You'll need to think carefully about how you can make the most out of what you have done. Make sure you also think about what you've gained from other extra-curricular activities, your degree course and work experience gained through part-time or vacation work.

What have you gained?

Increased self-confidence, the ability to work under pressure or to come up with new ideas could all be positive outcomes of your involvement with YSIS. You can probably add many other ideas to this list. To help you reflect on what you have got out of the experience it might be helpful to break it down:

• What does being a Student Tutor / Mentor involve?

  What have you contributed? What have you actually done? You may have offered one-to-one literacy support or worked on a highly focused project with sixth form students, taken on a difficult student or gone on outings and helped children make the most of these experiences when they have returned to the classroom. Spend a few minutes looking back at how you have spent your time.

  What have you learned and what skills have you developed?

• Reflect on the skills which you have developed through your YSIS experience. Working with school students may have enhanced your oral skills and your ability to explain complex information in a simpler way. You may have further developed your problem-solving skills, had the opportunity to use your creativity or improved your confidence through dealing with a range of students of varying abilities and standards of behaviour. You need to be clear about what you've got out of being a student tutor or mentor so that you can market this effectively to prospective employers.

What are employers looking for?

Before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard, make sure you know what the employer wants. The exact balance of skills, knowledge and experience required will vary with each vacancy but factors such as oral and written communication, social skills (can you establish good working relationships?), team working and problem solving are sought by the vast majority of employers from a variety of backgrounds.

Time spent gathering information on the needs of employers will help ensure that your application is relevant and will also help you decide how much space you can devote to factors such as the content of your degree and work experience. If you are applying for a job which requires specialist degree knowledge then you will need to provide more details about aspects of your degree than if the vacancy is open to graduates of any discipline.

Where on the CV?

If you are writing a CV, you may want to include information on YSIS in a section on interests but if you are applying for work with children or with a voluntary agency you will probably want to put the information in a section entitled "Relevant Work Experience" where you could group together other similar activities.

Employers may be unfamiliar with the term 'student tutoring' so describe it briefly (for example a programme which enables university students to gain practical experience working alongside teachers in schools), summarise what it has involved and mention the regular nature of the work. Undertaking a long term voluntary placement can show commitment and motivation! Don't forget to refer to the skills which you have gained as well.

Many application forms require you to provide examples of when you have used the key skills and competencies required by the employer. This may include your experience of working in a team or how you have coped with a challenging situation. You may be able to draw on your classroom experiences to provide evidence in answer to these questions. Make sure, however, that you draw examples from a variety of different areas such as your degree course, work experience and interests.

Help is at hand

The Careers Service has a range of information to help you make effective applications, including examples of CVs and covering letters. Careers advice is available on CVs and application forms through daily drop-in sessions or in 30-minute interview periods. We also run a series of lunchtime workshops on aspects of the recruitment process.

Careers Service resources for current students >

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