EUROPASS COURSE FOR GUIDANCE PRACTITIONERS

Europass is a widely applicable tool used by many different user profiles. Europass is a particularly convenient and popular tool for students in higher education when they need to apply for their first job or volunteering experiences, student practices, Erasmus+ mobilities and many more. In the following sections we are going to explain what makes Europass such a natural choice for students. Why do students need a Europass profile, CV or Cover Letter in the first place?

1. Europass helps students reflect on their current skills and experience

Very often, students think of CV writing mainly in terms of listing their education data and job experiences. In turn, they are often not aware that this is also a place to showcase the skills they gained in different educational and non-educational contexts.

Europass portal offers several sections where students are encouraged to analyse and reflect on their skills and interests, as well as experiences, in order to include them perfectly in their CVs and cover letters.

2. Europass helps students prepare for their European job search

By creating a Europass profile, students get a platform where they can regularly list and update their skills, experiences, and store many other documents relevant for their job search. In case a job opportunity presents itself, students can quickly and easily make a tailored job application and respond to any job ad within a few minutes.

3. Europass helps students when applying for different job, volunteering or mobility opportunities

There are many opportunities where students may need to provide their CVs. Students may be asked for a CV when they are applying for their graduate studies, research positions, student practices or student jobs, traineeships, volunteering opportunities, Erasmus+ mobilities and scholarships or grants. Europass is a CV format known and accepted by many employers in Europe. Its clear format allows employers to easily identify their candidates’ skills and experiences to see if they are the right fit for the job.

Why the Europass CV format is ideal for students

Skills, skills, skills…

For students with little or no work experience, writing a CV may seem like a difficult task. Even experienced professionals can have difficulty showcasing their employability on a CV. Of course, this challenge is much greater for students and recent graduates without an impressive work history. Europass is ideal for candidates who want to present themselves to their prospective employers in the best possible light, but still do not have considerable work experience to impress their potential employers. Therefore, they often find it difficult to think of relevant information to include in their CVs.

Even if they have little or no work experience, students can still stand out among other similar candidates by showcasing skills gained in different educational or non-educational environments. Your students may not be aware of it, but throughout their education or work experiences, it is very likely that they have also developed several skills that can apply to numerous job roles. These skills may not have only been strictly gained through a formal study or work experience, and may have also been developed in many different student jobs, volunteering experiences, etc. not necessarily related to students’ field of study.

Let your students think in depth about the activities they have been involved in during their education or student work. For instance:

• Have they worked as a brand promotor in a supermarket? Skills they have developed here are communication and presentation skills.
• Have they done a group project in a sociology class? Skills they have developed here are communication and team work.
• Created their own simple mobile app, a piece of art or music? They have creative skills.
• Studied Dutch, Croatian or another language? Even if they are not fluent, learning a language shows discipline and commitment.
• Good at interpreting research results or solving mathematical problems? They can think critically.
• Organised a study group to revise for exams? They are adept at time management and organisation.
• Let them think about their interests, hobbies, or any other activity they have been involved in. Do they play an instrument in a band? Volunteer at a retirement home? Run long races? These show they have enthusiasm, focus, dedication and discipline.

All of these, so-called, transversal skills can be easily adapted or transferred to their future job environment, and employers are well aware of that (and they take it into account in the job selection process).

Transferable skills that many employers look for include time management, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, communication, organisation, working under pressure, enthusiasm, customer service, meeting deadlines, and many more.

The Europass profile can provide strong support for your students in describing their skills, finding interesting jobs and learning opportunities, managing applications, and creating CVs and cover letters.

What can Europass do to help?

Registered Europass users will have access to the "My Skills" tool, which helps users self-assess their skills and have a clearer idea on the jobs that match those skills. Your students will be able to identify the skills they have from the suggestions provided, or to add new skills. These skills also come with descriptions that will help them understand the related sets of skills by describing and defining them in the context of different jobs.

Registered users of Europass can also use the "My Interests" tool, which guides them in reflecting on their interests and career goals by adding topics they are interested in, where they want to work or study, and what goals they want to achieve.

Writing your first CV

Students are often first-time job seekers, which means they may not have a particularly long or thorough CV writing experience. In addition to having difficulty showcasing their skills and experience on a CV, newer job seekers can find it equally challenging to write a CV of good quality, which includes all the information to help them shine and which is in line with the CV structure desired by the prospective employer.

The Europass CV Editor allows easy, user-friendly, step-by-step CV creation. The Europass CV Editor guides all users through all the main CV sections, such as About me, Work experience, Education and training, various skills categories, etc. Different sections of the CV can be rearranged and organised in any way a user wishes by dragging-and-dropping whole sections or subsections of the CV.

While job seekers with several years of experience will highlight their work accomplishments, newer job seekers can put more focus on education and non-work experience sections of the CV.

Lastly, students can often focus too much on making sure that the content is right, that they will forget the obvious fact that „Presentation is everything“ - their CV also needs to look good as well as sound good. Research shows that the average length of time spent by an employer reading any applicant's CV is approx. 10 seconds. If we have such a short time to hold the reader’s attention, we need to make an immediate impact.

When making their CVs in Europass, students can choose between four attractive CV templates, which will present all the information in a clear and structured way and make it easy for employers to quickly scan for different pieces of information in the CV, and to make their selection.

For a guided presentation on how to write a Europass CV or Cover Letter, please consult this document: CV_cover_letter_e-course.pptx.