How to Succeed at: Writing Applications

The University of Sheffield via FutureLearn

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Details

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Provider

FutureLearn
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

$54.00 Certificate Available
Duration & workload

3 weeks, 3 hours a week
Sessions

On-Demand

Found in

Overview

Experts from The Careers Service here at The University of Sheffield share their top tips to help you write exceptional applications, CVs (or résumés), covering letters and personal statements.

You’ll also hear from employers and admissions tutors to find out what they really look for in a candidate. And once you’ve written that perfect application, prepare for the next stage with our course: How to Succeed at: Interviews.

This course is designed for anyone applying for jobs or courses. It will be of particular interest to those in the early stages of their career, or those who are out of practice and need to update their skills. No prior knowledge or expertise are needed.

Syllabus

Preparing to apply

Welcome to Week 1
Understanding yourself
Understanding jobs and courses
Making the match
Summary of the week

CVs and covering letters

Welcome to Week 2
Create an effective CV
Develop a professional online profile
Sell yourself in your covering letter
End of week summary

Application forms and personal statements

Welcome to Week 3
Outstanding application forms
Brilliant personal statements
End of course summary

Taught by

Hilary Jones and Pamela Hafekost

Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 445 Class Central reviews

Start your review of How to Succeed at: Writing Applications

Rashesd Sufian @Surf

I've taken a lot of writing courses in my life, but I must confess that "How to Succeed at: Writing Applications" organised by the University of Sheffield via FutureLearn is exceptional. The course teaches modern approaches to preparing applications that guarantee employment at workplaces and admission at institutions. We, the course-takers, are provided with real-time materials to assist us to gain insights into the world of applications and sell ourselves to recruiters. If anyone is looking forward to "upping" their application writing skills, the course is a must.
Sylvia Amar @Pimiko

It's a very easy course to prepare resumes, linkedin profiles and job / courses applications. It's well documented with recruiters interviews.
Ih San

- A wonderful course! - I liked the pedagogical approach the course used to attract attention from the first till the last step, with various activities (videos, articles, exercises and successful samples with analysis - I liked the discussions, th…

- A wonderful course!
- I liked the pedagogical approach the course used to attract attention from the first till the last step, with various activities (videos, articles, exercises and successful samples with analysis
- I liked the discussions, they was enriching
- What can be improved is the discussion section. It would be better if the instructors and course developers could interact with the learner comments to confirm what is good and give advice for what is wrong, so that other learners take full benefit from the comments.
- Suggestion: some funny (but instructive also) steps can also be added, like asking the recruiters what was the funniest moment in their recruiting experience...
- I hope I've provided beneficial and useful review, just like your course was to me.
Thank you!
Anonymous

I have gained a lot from this course. For instance, I have learned how to showcase my skills through my online presence, create a professional CV, and complete application forms to increase my chances of being selected. I am grateful to you for providing this course.
Anonymous

This course increasingly enhanced my Personal statement and application writing skills. I regularly follow it to refresh my knowledge.
Thanks a bunch to the British Council and the University of Sheffield.
Anonymous

It is very insightful and full of valuable and helpful knowledge and resources to help one succeed in writing an application.
Anonymous

Writng application must be accurate , clear and related to the a job . First of all write clear info. about youself. List of education , date ,grade and format specified in the instruction.Then give brief details of each period of employment and wo…

Writng application must be accurate , clear and related to the a job .
First of all write clear info. about youself.
List of education , date ,grade and format specified in the instruction.Then give brief details of each period of employment and work experience including voluntary and unpaid work if you wish.
Give details of leisure interests and activities that demonstrate skills such as leadership, team working, organisation.
Some applications include a section where you are asked to describe your relevant skills and experience and your reasons for applying, usually in the form of a personal statement.
In the interview some questions might be asked about your motivations and skills of applying a job like :
Why are you applying for this job/course?
Why this organisation?
Describe a difficult problem you have solved.
How did you analyse and solve it?
If you are not sure about your skills and experience, try our short course to look at how you can provide evidence of them in competency based and motivational questions.
Riaz Laghari @riazlaghari

It is an effective course to develop your skills.It shares tips ,techniques and ways to write best applications.If you learn it ,your chances of getting a job might increase significantly.Good luck!
Naif ALHEMYARI

This course is really beneficial for recruiters either who is going to apply for new work/course or for who would like to improve his application CV and covet later. For me I gained a lot of tips and information that were missed in this field, on the other hand, I feel I get more confident about my CV and cover later. Thank you so much
Anonymous

I liked this course very much. This course was to my expectation level. I can see the guidance through out the course to improve writing application. I hope this will enable me to qualify for the job position or phd study.I can see the postgraduate, research and phd opportunity at the last part of your program. I hope that this course will provide me the guidance for opportunity to advance in my academic and professional career. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of the programme and I would be very grateful if I get the opportunity to join the advance programme to get advance research and phd to broaden my knowledge at your prestigious university. Please help me and guide me.
Anonymous

A good course for all rounded preparation of an application of almost any kind. I give it four because I feel that it may be too much and a little bit frightening for young lads to prepare applications. Otherwise, it is an "all in one ' course and I am grateful for the organizers.
Anonymous

If you are struggling with job applications or university/college applications then I would highly recommend this course as it provides a great deal of useful information such as preparing CVs and covering letters, STAR, the type of questions you might be asked at an interview and the best way to answer them. It provides information on how to approach an application form, sample CVs and covering letters.
The videos are quite good too. The people involved know what is expected of potential candidates whether it's for a job or an application to a university or college. I would definitely recommend listening to what they have to say and taking onboard their advice.
Anonymous

A thorough and engaging course, this learning has taken me through writing a cv, covering letter and application form. Also different types of question we may be asked and how we should answer. Its been really useful to me as I prepare to go back to work after a gap.
Chunfang Zhang

I very much like the course “How to Succeed at: Writing Applications” provided by the University of Sheffield via FutureLearn, the duration of which is 3 weeks. There are 51 sections, including 22 articles, 16 videos, 3 quizzes, 6 discussions and 4 exercises. I am happy to have completed the course and do appreciate the diligent, friendly and excellent course team, attractive instructional design, helpful contents, rich resources, and diversified teaching methods. I have benefited a lot from the tips and techniques, together with the brilliant samples and detailed analysis for making more effective applications. I do recommend you to attend the course.
Anonymous

This course takes one step by step on how to write applications for jobs or courses.
This makes it easy to understand and identify your strengths and the mistakes made by oneself.
Alex Cianca

The course was really interesting.
All the given info, examples and clarifications clearly helped me to get a better understanding of how to approach interviews, fill application forms and be visible online.
A big thanks for the included PDF. Their content highlighted step by step what to add when producing CV and Covering letters.
Extremely useful the interviews with the HR Managers.
My only complaint is the absence of the educators in replying to the users query or comments.
It'd have been fantastic have someone who could correct or suggest the right way throughout the course.
Richelle Hemnath

The course is very comprehensive covering writing applications when applying for both jobs and programmes of study (courses). The lessons shared cover all aspects of the writing application process and include feedback from recruiters who review applications submitted to their firms and universities. The course developers did a very thorough job of presenting the material in an easy to learn fashion, with lots of videos, interactive elements and templates to help you record 'the story of you'.
Anonymous

Even I have done the course quickly because I was very busy during the first week, I enjoyed and find it very useful for applying to any job. I could rebuilt my CV following the tips and valuable advices the professors give.
I have learned how to write a personal letter including what is necessary, and avoiding redundant details.
The course is very complete and help me a lot. It deserves five stars. I can recommend it to anyone interested in applying for a job or a course
Anonymous

Outstanding course to learn and put into practice information, tips and thoughts about our resume, cover letter and job's applications into an easy way.

During this course I could learn and practice, and finally, seeing a remarkable improve on my documents. In my experience, I didn't know many things so I really appreciate to be here and discover new material to reinforce my confidence and redoing my resume and cover letter. In addition, the opportunity to download some files provides a valuable support for the future.

I highly recommend this course. Thank you so much to all the staff for your time and dedication.
Anonymous

This course offered much more than I had expected. Not only do the activities help you writing effective applications, but also provide insights into interviews and what kind of behaviour should we have.
The course takes three weeks and lessons are straight to the point. They give us models of CVs and cover letters, as well as some ideas to answer tricky questions.
As a point of improvement, I would suggest the educators participate in the forums. Although the dialogues between learners are constructive, it would have been more engaging to see the educators interacting with us.
I definitely recommend this course.