My Qualifications!

The importance of this aspect of your resume depends largely on whether the position you are applying for has mandatory requirements. If it is essential to have certain qualifications, it is critical to communicate this from the very start. While usually placed on the front page of the resume (I generally favour this approach), some candidates are electing to mention their qualifications in their Career Objective or Key Competencies (that’s next week’s topic!) and provide the details after the employment summary. Either way, once you have decided where it is best placed, what headings do you use and what information is critical?

Education and Qualifications are basically interchangeable terms and relate to secondary, tertiary or nationally accredited training such as Certificates, Advanced Certificates and Diploma’s offered by TAFE and other such institutions. Professional Development / Training on the other hand refers to in house training, seminars, short courses, tickets and updates. For example, First Aid Certificates, In service training, OHS Blue Cards, Working with Children Blue Cards, Truck / Forklift licences, Responsible Service of Alcohol / Gambling etc, along with any other training programs or short courses.

When listing the details, it is important to provide adequate information pertaining to your qualification / development training to ensure that it presents as legitimate. Therefore, accurately list the EXACT title of the qualification, course, seminar or certificate, the name and suburb location of the institution you studied with, and the year in which you completed, or anticipate completing the course.

Things to consider……

• As with employment history, qualifications and professional development should be listed in date order starting with the most recent and working backwards
• On occasion, it may be appropriate to combine the sections under one heading of Qualifications and Professional Development, for example if there were just one listing under each section, it would potentially look better to combine them
• List OP scores, GPA’s, special awards or accolades if they demonstrate success and high achievement
• You must be able to substantiate your claims with appropriate documentation

Tanya Clonan

Managing Consultant