Education section
- Amanda Vos
- Linda Liu
- Matthew King
This section will typically follow the summary of qualifications if you consider it stronger or more relevant to your application than your work or volunteer experience. Within certain sectors or companies, there may be a particular order in which your education is typically expected to appear. As always, consider researching to find out more.
Sometimes called:
Education and Training
Education and Certifications
Education and Professional Development
Education
Selected Training
The education section of your résumé is one location to showcase not only your degrees but also your accomplishments and areas of expertise related to your formal education background.
Consider the following formatting options:
Arrange entries in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first)
Include your degree/diploma/certificate name(s), university/college, location, start month/year and end month/year. Feel free to include your GPA if you feel it is strong and relevant.
You may use the full degree name (e.g., Bachelor of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Science) or abbreviations if they are clearly understood (e.g., BA, BEd, BMath, PhD).
You may also include your major, minor, option or specialization (if desired).
Identifying the prestige or defining quality of an educational institution outside of Canada may also be advisable to educate Canadian hiring managers.
For example, an entry could appear as follows: Degree name, Institution name (defining quality or stature)
e.g., “BA Economics, University of xyz ( University x/Department of Economics ranked #2 in [country/state]”.
For past degrees or certificates the start year is not needed, only the completion/convocation month/year.
Optional to include high school, with specialization if applicable. Many choose to remove it after their first year of post-secondary study, but there could be advantages to keeping it, such as if it was a prestigious institution or will add valuable information.
Address changes or uniqueness of degrees. For those who have switched degrees, have multiple degrees or want to communicate unique components of a degree, you can do so by including your current degree and adding bullet points to communicate your unique components.
If incorporating professional development activities (e.g., certifications, workshops, or continuing or distance education courses) consider changing the heading to “Education and Professional Development,” as a way to highlight both your education and professional development experiences.
If there are other aspects of your education you want to highlight within the education section, or if you have questions about the formatting/length of it, consult with a trusted contact in your target industry or with a career advisor.
In addition to including information on undergraduate and/or graduate degrees, you can also include the following as sub-headings within the education section or as a sub-heading under each degree/course/certification.
Relevant projects
Include one to three substantive projects and/or assignments you have completed in university that are relevant to the type of job you’re hoping to attain. This is particularly helpful for those with relatively little work or volunteer experience. Consider creating this section as a sub-heading or as a bullet point under the corresponding educational experience within your degree, course or other entry in your education section.
If you have a non-course-based or large course-based project that you would like to feature — such as a volunteer or student club project — consider including it under a separate project experience section.
Tips:
Provide the project or assignment title, the class or lab the project or assignment was completed in, and dates (e.g., “Method of Practice Report, Introduction to Social Work, Sept. – Dec. 2022”; “Payroll Database Assignment, Introduction to Computing, Sept. – Dec. 2022”; “Circuit Analysis Project, Circuit Analysis Lab, Feb. – June 2020”)
List your points in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first)
Include several bullet points to describe what you accomplished; begin each bullet point with an action verb (e.g., Presented 50-page report to panel of five faculty resulting in grade of 95%)
Do not use vague expressions such as “responsible for” or “duties included”
Avoid non-specific verbs such as “helped” or “assisted”
Use past tense for completed projects/assignments and present tense for anything ongoing
You can add any relevant courses (typically six or fewer) under the corresponding degree. This can help lend credibility for specific knowledge you may have claimed in an experience bullet point. Including the titles of relevant courses could also be a way to affirm that you have gained knowledge or skills in a particular area that you might not have yet had an opportunity to utilize in a work environment.
You can include any areas you have specialized in, such as the topic of a major research paper or thesis if it is in a subject area that might be relevant to the employer or position.
You can include any awards, scholarships, or grants received during your education. Include only those that are merit-based rather than financial-needs based. Most employers will not be aware of the criteria for these awards, so you can add additional information e.g., XYZ award given to the students in the first year of the xyz program with the highest GPA.
You may choose to highlight a particularly relevant and/or prestigious award in your summary of qualifications. If you want to highlight your awards, you could consider having a separate awards section rather than a sub-section.
Graduate students or others who've received grants can include them particularly if applying to a job that involves skills such as grant or proposal writing.
Expand the following content for more information.