Why include a cover letter?

As we reach the peak time for schools to recruit ECTs for September 2021, we thought we would highlight the use of including a cover letter when applying for a role. It is more important than ever to utilise this often-overlooked tool with the ongoing restrictions of Covid-19 impacting the recruitment process resulting in online and telephone interviews.

Often this letter is the first contact you have with a prospective school/college and more so than ever, given the current government measures in place regarding social distancing etc., it could be a key aspect of your job application.

The aim of a good cover letter should be to introduce to yourself and highlight aspects of your knowledge and skills that match the job role; the reader should be enabled to then see from your CV, why you are a suitable candidate. It should not include grammatical errors, untruths, specials requests re pay, hours etc., your ambitions for the future, or be overly long.

A cover letter is a means to:

• introduce yourself in a more personable way
• tailor your experience and skills to the specific role on offer
• demonstrate your local knowledge about the school/college
• make a good first impression in order to stand out from the other applicants
• demonstrate why you are a strong candidate for the job
• imply your enthusiasm for the available role
• indicate why you want the job

It should include:

• a brief opening paragraph to introduce yourself
• highlights from your CV
• relevant skills, knowledge and experience that match the role
• some local knowledge about the school/college
• genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the role (but not overly)
• a closing paragraph with contact details and availability to start

This is just one highlight from our ECT digital toolkit, go to our ECT page to view in full and download.