The learnership CV

What is a learnership?

A learnership is a training programme where you learn and work at the same time. Part of your time goes to classes and part to doing the real job at an employer. You are paid a stipend, a monthly allowance, while you learn, and at the end you hold a qualification that counts anywhere in the country. Most run for about a year.

Learnerships are offered by employers together with the SETAs, the training bodies for each industry: retail, security, banking, transport, mining and the rest. The stipend is smaller than a salary, and the amount differs from programme to programme, but you leave with a qualification, real experience and a reference. For someone with no work history, that is the whole ladder in one programme.

One thing worth knowing: interest in learnerships explodes every January, when everyone is hunting at once. The person whose CV is ready before then applies first, so do not wait for the new year to make yours.

What most learnership adverts ask for

Every programme sets its own rules, so the advert is the law: read it twice and give exactly what it names. That said, most adverts ask for the same short list.

• A South African ID.
• Matric, or the grade the advert names. Some programmes take Grade 10 or 11, so do not rule yourself out without reading.
• An age band, often 18 to 35, because most learnerships are youth programmes.
• Usually that you are not working or studying full time, because you must be free for the programme.
• Certified copies of your ID and results, when the advert asks for them. Certifying copies at a police station is free, so never pay anyone to do it.

The CV that gets you shortlisted

A learnership post can pull hundreds of applications, and the person sifting them gives each CV seconds. Your CV has one job: make the six things they are checking easy to find.

1. A phone number that worksAt the top, on WhatsApp, with voicemail that is not full. More people lose an opportunity because nobody could reach them than for any other reason.
2. The advert's own wordsIf it says retail learnership, NQF level, Grade 12, or the name of a programme, use those exact words. Many applications are filtered by machine before a person reads them.
3. Your subjects and resultsMatric subjects with your best marks, or your highest grade and the year. Say it plainly. Hiding it reads worse than not having it.
4. Proof you finish thingsPrefect, class rep, sport, choir, debating, church work, coaching kids, helping in a family spaza or salon, a first aid course, a learner licence. A learnership is a year long commitment, so they are looking for someone who pitches up and sees things through.
5. When you can startIf you can start immediately and can get there, say so. It answers the question they were about to ask.
6. Two references who will answerA teacher, a pastor, a coach, somebody you helped. Ask them first and warn them a call may come.

One page is enough. Send it as one PDF named like a person, Sipho Dlamini CV.pdf, never a photo of a printed page.

No experience? That is the point

Learnerships exist for people without experience. The programme is how you get it, so an empty Work Experience section does not disqualify you. Leave the heading off completely rather than showing it empty, put your skills above your education, and open with three short lines saying who you are and which learnership you want.

Everything you have actually done still counts: school, home, community, volunteering. Our tips page shows how to turn all of it into CV lines that a stranger believes.

Ready in about ten minutes

Pick the learnership template, answer five questions, download the PDF, apply. It is free, it works on the phone in your hand, and your CV waits saved on your phone for the next application.