An apprenticeship is not a longer work experience week. It is a job with a contract, a wage and a qualification at the end, and the CV that wins one is built differently from the CV that wins a placement.
An apprenticeship is a job, and that changes everything
When you start an apprenticeship you go on payroll. You sign an employment contract, you get holiday entitlement, you pay tax, and you spend part of your working time with a training provider or college working toward a recognised qualification. In the UK that runs from Level 2 intermediate, through Level 3 advanced, up to Levels 4 and 5 higher apprenticeships and Level 6 or 7 degree apprenticeships, where you finish with a full bachelor's or master's and no tuition debt. Most last between one and four years. In Ireland you register with a coordinating authority for a two to four year programme. In Australia the equivalent is a training contract signed with a registered provider. Different names, same deal: real employment, structured training, an assessment at the end.
That is why the CV has a different job to do. A one week placement costs an employer a bit of somebody's patience. An apprentice costs a wage for years, a supervisor who stops being productive in order to teach you, assessor visits, and a slot that stays empty if you leave in month five. They are not buying skill. They are buying the odds that you will still be there in year three.
Almost nobody loses an apprenticeship because they could not learn the trade. They lose it because they stopped turning up.
What an apprenticeship employer is really screening for
Ask anyone who recruits apprentices and the same short list comes back.
- Attendance. Your school attendance percentage is a genuine hiring input. If it is 95 per cent or above, put the number on the CV in writing.
- Punctuality and logistics. Can you actually get to a 7 am start on an industrial estate with no bus service? If the answer is yes, say how.
- Trainability. Proof that you have taken instruction from an adult who is not your parent, and stayed with something difficult past the point where it stopped being fun.
- Maths and literacy. Advanced apprenticeships assume functional maths, and large schemes often run an online numeracy test before interview. Your grades tell them whether you will pass it.
- Safety awareness. Nobody expects a 17 year old to know the regulations. They want a sign that you understand a workshop or a live board can seriously hurt you.
- Finishing things. Four seasons at the same football club beats a long list of activities you tried once.
Write the CV so a reader ticks those boxes without having to hunt.
The structure to use when you have no work history
Keep it in this order.
- Contact block. Name, town and postcode area, mobile, a sensible email address. Not your school email, because it stops working the day you leave.
- Personal statement. Three or four lines. Names the trade and the specific scheme.
- Education. School or college, dates, subjects with actual grades.
- Practical and hands on experience. Anything real, however informal.
- Skills. Concrete, not adjectives.
- Practical details. Licence, tools, availability, right to work, certificates.
- Interests. Only the ones that show relevant aptitude.
Notice what is missing. There is no "Work Experience" section sitting empty at the top with one line about a week in a warehouse. If your hands on content is thin, it belongs under a heading that lets you include unpaid and informal work honestly.
Mining "no experience" for real content
You have more than you think. Go through this list and write down everything that applies before you write a word of the CV.
- School design and technology, engineering or construction projects, including what you actually made and what tools you used.
- Work experience weeks, even the boring one. Say what you were allowed to do, not just where you sat.
- Saturday jobs, holiday work, paper rounds, car washing, labouring for a neighbour on a weekend.
- Helping in a family business. Stocktaking in your uncle's shop is inventory control and cash handling.
- Sports teams, especially anything that shows years of turning up in bad weather. Captaincy, refereeing, coaching a junior side.
- Scouts, cadets, Duke of Edinburgh. Cadets in particular reads as attendance, discipline and safety briefings.
- Running a gaming clan or a Discord server with a rota. That is scheduling other people and resolving disputes.
- Fixing bikes, servicing a moped, stripping and rebuilding a lawnmower, wiring a PC, building a shed with your dad.
- Volunteering at a food bank, a charity shop, a stable, a community garden.
- Caring responsibilities at home. Getting a younger sibling to school every morning is reliability evidence and you are allowed to say so.
Then convert each item into a line with a fact in it. Not "hard working and reliable". Instead: "Rebuilt the brakes and gearing on three second hand bikes and sold them on Facebook Marketplace for a total of 190 pounds."
Writing the personal statement with nothing to point to yet
Do not open with "I am a hard working individual seeking an opportunity". Every reader has seen it two hundred times this month and it says nothing.
Three moves, in order. Name the trade and the scheme. Say why this trade, with one specific reason that is not money. Say what you have already done to move toward it, however small.
Weak: "I am enthusiastic and keen to learn in a fast paced environment."
Strong: "I am applying for the Level 3 Installation Electrician apprenticeship at Harlow Electrical. I chose electrical work after helping rewire the lighting in my grandad's garage and finding that the fault finding was the part I enjoyed most. I have completed a Level 1 electrical taster course at Leeds City College and hold a valid CSCS green card."
The second one is not better written. It just has facts in it.
Grades: mixed results, resits and predictions
Put your grades in. Leaving them off reads as hiding something worse than whatever you actually got.
If your results are mixed, list them in order and let the good ones lead. Maths and English go in regardless of grade, because the employer needs to know where you stand against the entry requirement. If you are resitting, say so plainly with the date: "Maths grade 3, resitting November 2026." That is a candidate with a plan. A missing maths line is a candidate with a problem.
Predicted grades belong on the CV if you have not sat the exams yet, clearly labelled as predicted. Never present a predicted grade as an achieved one. Providers verify certificates before enrolment and the contract falls apart at that point.
If you have vocational qualifications, a BTEC, a T Level, a Level 1 introductory diploma, put them alongside the GCSEs rather than in a separate afterthought.
The practical block almost everyone leaves off
This is the section that quietly decides shortlists, and most candidates never write it.
- Driving. Full licence, provisional, or the date of your test. On a scheme with multiple sites this is close to essential, and a provisional plus a booked test still beats silence.
- Transport backup. If you cannot drive yet, say what you will do instead. "Site is 25 minutes by bike, route already tested."
- Own tools. Basic hand tools, a set of screwdrivers, steel toe caps in your size. Small thing, reads as serious.
- Availability. Early starts, shift patterns, weekend cover, block release weeks at college.
- Right to work. One line confirming it, especially if your name or address might raise a question in a screener's head.
- Certificates. CSCS card, first aid, food hygiene, manual handling, an online IOSH course, anything with a certificate number.
Format, length and ATS
One page. Not one and a half. A 17 year old with two pages has padded, and the reader knows it.
Plain layout, one clear font at 11 points, black text, no colour blocks, no skill bars showing you at 80 per cent competent in a trade you have never practised. No photo in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada or Australia. Save as PDF unless the application form asks for Word.
Larger schemes, the manufacturers, utilities and rail operators, run applications through an ATS. That means no text inside images, no columns that scramble when parsed, no header or footer holding your phone number, and section headings using ordinary words like Education and Skills. Mirror the exact wording of the advert: if it says "Engineering Technician Apprenticeship Level 3", write that phrase, not "engineering apprentice role".
A worked example: electrical and engineering apprenticeship
Tom Whitfield
- Chapel Allerton, Leeds LS7 | 07700 900412 | tom.whitfield06@outlook.com
Personal statement
- Applying for the Level 3 Installation and Maintenance Electrician apprenticeship at Kirkstall Electrical Services. I picked electrical work after two weeks shadowing a domestic installer through school placement, where I spent most of the time on second fix and testing. I have since finished a Level 1 electrical installation taster at Leeds College of Building and hold a CSCS labourer card.
Education
- Allerton Grange School, 2021 to 2026
- Maths grade 6, English Language grade 5, Combined Science grade 5 5, Design and Technology grade 6, Geography grade 4, Business Studies grade 4
- Attendance 97 per cent across Years 10 and 11, no unauthorised absence
- Leeds College of Building, Level 1 Introduction to Electrical Installation, evenings, spring 2026
Practical experience
- School placement, two weeks with Vickers Domestic Electrical, June 2025. Assisted with second fix on a two bedroom refurbishment, labelled consumer unit circuits, learned safe isolation procedure and correct use of a voltage indicator.
- Saturday assistant, Roundhay Convenience Store, since March 2025. Six hour shifts, opening the shop at 6.30 am, stock rotation, cash handling and deliveries. Never missed a shift.
- Home projects. Rebuilt and rewired a 1990s Honda C90 including the loom and ignition switch. Serviced and sold three second hand bicycles.
Skills
- Safe isolation procedure, basic continuity and insulation resistance testing under supervision
- Hand tools, cordless drill, crimping, cable stripping, conduit bending practice
- Reads circuit diagrams and wiring schedules
- Maths applied to measurement, ratio and basic Ohm's law calculations
Practical details
- Provisional driving licence, theory test passed, practical test booked for 14 September 2026
- Site at Kirkstall reachable in 20 minutes by bus route 33, timed and tested
- Own basic hand tools and size 9 steel toe cap boots
- Available for 7 am starts and Saturday work, and for block release weeks at college
- CSCS green labourer card, valid to 2029. Right to work in the UK
Interests
- Leeds Modifieds junior karting, mechanic and pit crew for a family team since 2022, two full seasons
- Air Cadets, 2022 to 2024, achieved First Class classification
Last checks before you send it
Read the advert again and count how many of its requirements appear on your CV in the advert's own words. Get one adult who is not a relative to read it for typos, because a spelling mistake on a one page CV occupies a much bigger share of the page than it would on three. Save the file as your own name plus the scheme, not as "cv final v4".
Then apply early. Apprenticeship vacancies are usually filled on a rolling basis, and a good CV in week one beats a perfect one in week six.