This might be a slightly unconventional cover letter because it doesn’t necessarily fit the traditional format.
That said, as you’ll see in a second, hopefully, it will save you some time and show you why I believe I’m a strong candidate for this position.
1. Ability to deal effectively and to communicate well with people.
I’ve worked at numerous language schools such as Education First, Elac and Languages & Nature (both abroad and in the UK).
As part of my job role, I’ve managed teams of up to 60+ people (both kids and adults). As a result, I’m used to working and communicating with large groups of people and children of various age ranges and abilities.
(At Education First I was promoted from activity leader to event manager within the first month.)
Additionally, I have experience working with disabled and non-verbal children because of my time at Embrace. Embrace is a daycare centre for disabled children.
I was also Chalk Farm’s hotel assistant manager and events coordinator for a year. Chalk Farm is an operational hospitality and other training centre for people with learning disabilities.
This both highlights my communication abilities because we had to develop specific and unique learning structures for each individual. We also had to carefully schedule key activities to ensure a high standard of teaching. This was especially important because often people with disability favour structure and routine.
Regarding my ability to deal sensitively with anxious students, I am extremely confident when it comes to handling potentially challenging situations.
I’m safe-talk and safeguarding trained. On numerous occasions, my language abilities have helped me intervene and safeguard the children I’ve worked with when there was a language barrier, this includes other instances too.
I’m bilingual (English and French) with intermediate German and basic Spanish.
I’ve also worked in customer service roles for over 10 years so I’m comfortable and confident in public-facing roles.
This includes managing and problem-solving in various situations.
2. Active involvement or participation in organising large scale events
When I was 18 I organised a relatively large weekend festival in my local area. This event saw over 500 visitors per day. I also worked in the marketing and communications department along side Hugh Jones at the University of Brighton. I helped out for over a year and I was involved with organising the 2019 student graduation.
3. Ability to work effectively to deadlines while under pressure + Good ICT skills including databases
I’m in the process of completing my 4-year degree in event management (The University of Brighton/ Bimm). While being at university I’ve had 3 jobs simultaneously and still managed to balance my education, work and personal life. As mentioned, I’ve successfully run several events and activity days, which has required strong organisational skills and dealing with the pressures which running an event entails.
I’ve also set up and run various marketing campaigns for my clients as part of the freelance social media work I’ve carried out.
This involved planning the entire posting schedule, contacting and maintaining relationships with the key stakeholders and executing on the strategy.
For instance: I did a social media campaign for a charity called Rain where we worked with a number of international artists to raise funds. This involved reaching out to the various artists, gathering content and getting everything together ready for the deadlines. The campaign was successful and we raised around £3,500 with no paid advertising in just under 3 months.
In terms of some of the tech skills required for this, I used email management software, Adobe Creative Cloud (photo editing) and the Microsoft Office suite - specifically Excel for tracking the key numbers and PowerPoint for making presentations.
4. Ability to explain regulations and procedures in a clear and concise manner & Ability to plan own workload
As mentioned, I’ve had a lot of experience working (10yrs) with kids and as you can imagine, there are a lot of regulations and procedures in place for their safeguarding and making sure they are looked after.
As a result, I have had to be aware and up to date on the various regulations and procedures in place.
In terms of some relevant qualifications, I’m DBS checked, first aid and safe talk/mental health qualified (Safeguarding Children (Advanced) Level 2 V3.0, Paediatric First Aid and general First Aid).
Moreover, running events has required me to know certain health & safety procedures, plus in some instances, I’ve had to design and implement new procedures for others to follow too.
Commitment to students I’ve been a student rep, an ambassador and a student residential advisor. I hope this demonstrates some commitment to others. Also, I was highly involved in the student union. I led and ran welcome days, workshops to promote courses and I ran for student union president.
Thank you for taking the time to read my application.
Carys