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Student CV Template and Examples for UK Jobs

A student CV has one job: prove you are reliable and capable when your work history is short. Whether you are applying for a Saturday job, a placement year or a summer internship, this page shows you exactly what to include — with a copyable example.

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  • For ages 16+ and undergraduates
  • No experience needed
  • One-page template
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What a student CV is for (and what it is not)

Most student CVs are read by people hiring for part-time retail, hospitality, tutoring, placements or internships. None of them expect professional experience. They are asking three questions: can this person turn up on time, can they talk to people, and do they seem like someone I can train?

That means your student CV is not a shorter version of an adult CV with gaps apologised for. It is a different document that leads with your education and treats everything else — weekend jobs, sports clubs, babysitting, Duke of Edinburgh, volunteering — as evidence of reliability. Written properly, a student with zero formal jobs can still fill a convincing page.

What to include

The sections a UK student CV needs

  • Contact details Name, mobile, a sensible email address, and your town. You do not need your full address, date of birth, age or a photo — UK employers do not expect any of them.
  • Personal profile (2–3 lines) Who you are and what you are looking for: “A-level student seeking a weekend retail role. Two years of volunteering experience and strong customer service skills from school events.”
  • Education — your headline section School, years, and your subjects with achieved or predicted grades. For GCSEs, “9 GCSEs at grades 9–6, including Maths (7) and English (8)” is the right level of detail. Undergraduates list their degree, expected classification and relevant modules.
  • Work experience (if any) Any paid or unpaid work, however small: paper rounds, babysitting, helping a family business, a one-week placement. Date it, name it, give it two bullets.
  • Skills & achievements IT skills (Word, Excel, Google Workspace), languages, first aid certificates, a driving licence if you have one, and anything you led or organised at school.
  • Activities & interests Two or three lines that prove commitment: sports teams, music grades, coding club, DofE award level. Vague interests add nothing; commitments do.

The main worry

Writing a CV with no work experience

Every bullet on a good CV answers the silent question “so what?”. “Played for the school hockey team” fails it; “Trained twice a week for three seasons and captained the U16 squad” passes. Same fact, different evidence.

Go through everything you have done in the last two years and apply the test: school council, prefect roles, fundraising events, helping at open evenings, caring for siblings, gaming tournaments you organised, a YouTube channel you edit videos for. Employers hiring students are buying attitude and reliability — almost anything you committed to and finished is evidence of both.

Avoid these

Student CV mistakes to avoid

  • Listing every GCSE individually Once you have more than five, summarise: “8 GCSEs at grades 9–5 including English and Maths”. Exception: the specific subjects a role asks for.
  • An essay-length profile Three lines maximum. Recruiters hiring for weekend work skim; a wall of text about your career ambitions at 17 reads as padding.
  • Writing 'no experience yet' Never apologise on your own CV. Lead with what you have done, in the language of what it proved.
  • Forgetting availability For part-time roles, availability is a deciding factor. One line — “Available weekends and Wednesday evenings” — can put you above stronger-on-paper candidates.

Worked example

A student CV you can copy

An A-level student applying for weekend retail work. No formal job history — and still a full, convincing page.

Student example — A-level student, first part-time job

Age 17 · Bristol · weekend retail

Olivia Bennett Bristol, BS5 · 07700 900 558 · olivia.bennett@email.co.uk PERSONAL PROFILE Second-year A-level student looking for a weekend retail assistant role. Reliable, friendly and used to busy environments from two years of volunteering at school events. Available Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesday evenings. EDUCATION A-levels: Business, Geography, Sociology (predicted ABB) — St Brendan's Sixth Form, 2024–2026 GCSEs: 9 at grades 9–5, including Maths (7) and English Language (8) — Fairfield School, 2024 EXPERIENCE Volunteer Events Helper — Fairfield School | Sep 2023 – Jul 2024 • Helped run 6 open evenings and parents' events, directing 100+ visitors per evening • Set up and cleared refreshment stations for audiences of up to 250 • Praised by the events coordinator for staying late to finish clearing twice when short-staffed Babysitting (regular) | 2023 – present • Care for two children (ages 5 and 8) most Friday evenings for three local families • Trusted with bedtimes, meals and first-aid basics; references available SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS • Confident with Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets; made the year-book fundraiser poster • Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award (2024) • Basic food hygiene certificate (2024) • Netball — school team, 3 seasons, vice-captain 2024/25 AVAILABILITY Saturdays and Sundays (any hours), Tuesday evenings from 4pm, full weeks during school holidays

Read the bullets closely: none of them describe a job, yet every one of them is about reliability, people and numbers. That is the whole technique.

Student-friendly templates

Templates for a first CV

Simple, one page, easy for a shop manager to read in thirty seconds. Choose one and replace the sample content with yours.

Resume templateminimal

Pure Minimal

Ultra-clean minimal resume with sky-blue accent, generous whitespace and a left-aligned header. Perfect for tech and product roles.

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Resume templateeuropean

Manchester Modern CV

Modern British CV template with an accent sidebar for skills and a clean UK-format main column. Free two-page A4 CV with instant PDF download.

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Resume templateminimal

Nordic Minimal

Scandinavian minimal resume with slate primary, icy blue accent and generous whitespace for engineers and product leaders.

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Keep going

More student and graduate help

FAQ

Student CV questions

How long should a student CV be?

One A4 page, without exception. If you are running over, cut the weakest content rather than shrinking the font below 10pt or the margins below 2cm.

Should I include my age or date of birth?

No — UK employers should not ask for it and do not expect it. Saying you are an A-level student or undergraduate tells them what they need to know about your stage.

Do I need references for a weekend job?

Have one or two people in mind — a teacher, a family you babysit for, a volunteer coordinator — but you do not need to list them on the CV. “References available on request” is optional; employers assume it.

Is a photo expected on a student CV?

No. Photos are not part of UK CV conventions at any level, including for first jobs, and leaving one off will never count against you.

Make your student CV now

Choose a clean one-page template, fill in your education and activities, and download your first CV as a PDF — free, no account, no watermark.

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