Every CV guide for school leavers says the same vague thing: “focus on transferable skills”. None of them tell you which skills, in which words. So we counted.
We pulled 301 real UK entry-level, trainee and “no experience required” job adverts from Find a Job (the DWP's official UK board) and counted the exact wording employers use. The results are striking, and they tell you almost everything you need to know to write your first CV.
The headline: the jobs are there
84% of the adverts are permanent contracts (not temp, not agency-only). 47% explicitly promise training. 32% spell out “no experience required”. 24% are dedicated trainee roles. 19% explicitly welcome school leavers. These are not the leftover bits of the job market. They are real careers, and they exist in volume.
The reason most school leavers do not see this is the same reason most adults struggle with job applications: the CV they send does not look like the kind of CV the employer is scanning for. That is fixable in 20 minutes.
The top 10 things UK entry-level employers actually want
Ranked by frequency across 301 real adverts.
Top keywords in UK no-experience / entry-level adverts
| Keyword | % of adverts |
|---|---|
| Communication | 38% |
| Flexibility | 31% |
| Enthusiasm / passion | 28% |
| Reliability | 22% |
| Positive attitude | 20% |
| Confidence | 19% |
| Friendly / approachable | 17% |
| Motivated / driven | 17% |
| Willing to learn | 15% |
| Customer service | 14% |
Read that list once more. Not one of those is a qualification. Not one is a technical skill. The single most-asked-for thing across UK entry-level adverts is the ability to communicate, followed by flexibility, enthusiasm and reliability. A school leaver who has never had a paid job in their life has all four of these and just does not know how to put them into the language UK employers screen for.
The personal statement that hits five screens at once
Most first-CV personal statements are full of words that mean nothing. “Hard-working and motivated” is in every CV in the country. It scores zero because it does not match the words the employer wrote in the advert.
Three sentences, written in the language of the data above:
“Recent A-level leaver from Notre Dame College, Liverpool. Reliable, flexible with shifts, and confident communicating with customers and colleagues, with two years of weekend work at the family takeaway and a season as captain of the under-18 netball team. Looking for a full-time customer-facing role in Liverpool or Wirral with training and progression.”
That statement directly mirrors six of the top ten screens (communication 38%, flexibility 31%, reliability 22%, confidence 19%, customer service 14%, and the progression signal 30% of employers offer). It also names two concrete experiences. The recruiter scanning the top of the CV has more than enough to invite the candidate to interview before reading the rest.
What counts as “experience” when you have no jobs yet
Every one of these belongs on your CV. Most school leavers leave them off.
- Saturday jobs and weekend work. Helping in a family takeaway, garage, hairdresser or shop is real experience. Name how long and what you handled (money, customers, busy shifts).
- Paper rounds, babysitting, dog walking, gardening for neighbours. Cash-in-hand work is still work. It signals reliability and time management, which are 22% and another big screen.
- School work experience week. Year 10 or Year 12 placements should be on the CV. Name the employer and what you learned.
- Volunteering. Charity shop hours, food bank shifts, Scouts and Guides leadership, school open days. Also signals values for care, education and public sector roles.
- School responsibilities. Prefect, form captain, peer mentor, head of house, school council. Trust and leadership signals.
- Sports teams and clubs. Captain, top scorer, longstanding member. The standard UK proxy for teamwork and resilience.
- Personal projects. A website, an Instagram or TikTok that grew, small coding apps, selling on Vinted, writing a blog. Initiative is the screen.
- Caring responsibilities. If you have helped care for a family member, that is real experience. UK healthcare and care employers explicitly value young carers. Name it.
What to leave off (this is half the battle)
- Date of birth. Not required. Invites age discrimination.
- Photo. Not the UK convention. Strip it.
- Nationality. Only relevant after offer.
- Full home address. City and region is enough.
- National Insurance number. Never on a CV.
- Full GCSE grade breakdown if you have A-levels. Summarise as “9 GCSEs grades 4 to 8 including English and Maths”.
- Hobbies that signal nothing. “Watching films with friends” tells the recruiter nothing. Strip it.
- References with names and phone numbers. “Available on request” is enough.
Full detail: what to leave off your CV in 2026.
The shortcut
Writing a CV from scratch with no experience is the worst version of this problem.
Sausage Dog does the hard part for you. Paste the advert, paste a short summary of your school, hobbies and any weekend or volunteering work, and you get a tailored CV that already mirrors the exact wording the advert is screening for. No template, no blank page, no “what do I even write”.
Free for the first few tailors a day. No card needed.
The format details that matter
- Plain layout, one column. Two-column CVs and infographic templates often fail when applicant tracking systems parse them. The fancy ones score zero on keyword presence because the parser cannot follow the columns.
- Standard fonts. Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman. 10-11 point body. Anything fancier is a risk.
- Save as .docx, not PDF. Most UK applicant tracking systems read .docx more reliably. If the application form forces PDF, export at submit time.
- File name matters. “Anna Patel CV.docx”, not “CV final v3 actually final.docx”. The recruiter sees the file name in their queue.
- One page is plenty. Two pages is acceptable if you genuinely need it. Most school leavers do not.
One thing nobody tells you: 59% state the pay
In the entry-level slice of the UK market, 59% of adverts state the salary or hourly rate openly, and another 33% give an hourly figure even if no salary band is named. This matters when comparing roles: you can filter by money up front rather than getting deep into an application before finding out it pays minimum wage. UK pay transparency is much higher at the entry-level end of the market than further up, which is a small advantage school leavers should use.
Practical asks that come up often
- 16% require a driving licence. Mention yours plainly if you have one. If you do not but you have a provisional or are taking lessons, mention that too. Either is more useful than nothing.
- 14% mention a DBS check. Standard for any care, education or work-with-children role. If you already have an enhanced DBS, name it.
- 16% mention shifts and 12% mention weekend work. If you are genuinely flexible, say so in the personal statement (it directly hits the 31% flexibility screen).
- 16% are admin roles, 8% care, 7% retail, 8% warehouse, 7% cleaning, 6% apprenticeships. The lowest-floor sectors. Plenty of demand.
Your first CV is not about pretending to have experience you do not have. It is about putting the words UK employers actually screen for (communication, flexibility, enthusiasm, reliability) at the top, written in their language, on one plain page. The data says the jobs are there. The CV that mirrors the advert is the one that gets read.
Linked reading
- How recruiters actually read CVs (the 6-second scan)
- What to leave off your CV in 2026 (UK guide)
- How to highlight achievements on your CV
- What 105 UK care worker adverts actually want
- What 102 UK office admin adverts actually want
Frequently asked
Do UK employers actually hire people with no work experience?+
Yes, and more than most school leavers realise. We read 301 UK entry-level adverts and 32% explicitly say no experience is required, 47% explicitly say training will be provided, and 24% are dedicated trainee roles. 84% of these are permanent jobs, not temp work. The barrier is rarely that the jobs do not exist. It is that the CVs sent for them do not look like what the employers are screening for.
What is the most important thing on a school-leaver CV?+
Soft skill language that mirrors the advert. The single most-asked-for thing across UK entry-level adverts is communication (38%), followed by flexibility (31%), enthusiasm (28%), reliability (22%) and positive attitude (20%). If your CV opens with "hard-working and motivated" it is competing with every other CV. If it opens with "reliable, flexible with shifts, friendly communication with customers and colleagues" it has just hit four of the top five screens.
Do I need GCSEs or A-levels for a UK entry-level job?+
Helpful but rarely a hard screen. Only 6% of UK entry-level adverts specifically mention GCSE requirements and 5% mention maths and English. The qualification floor is much lower than school leavers expect. What matters more is showing communication, reliability and a willing-to-learn attitude. Name your qualifications if you have them, but do not assume you cannot apply because you did not get the grades you hoped for.
How long should a first CV be in the UK?+
One page. Recruiters scan a CV in roughly 6 to 8 seconds. A one-page CV that hits the top five screens (communication, flexibility, enthusiasm, reliability, positive attitude) gets read. A two-page CV with the same content padded out does not get read more. School leavers should fit everything on one A4 page in plain Word format.
Should I put my date of birth or photo on my first CV?+
No. UK CV conventions changed years ago. Do not include date of birth, photo, nationality, full home address or National Insurance number. City and region is enough for location. Adding personal details invites discrimination and clutters the page. The CV is for showing what you can do, not what you look like or how old you are.
Is it worth applying if the advert says one year of experience?+
Often yes. The experience line in entry-level adverts is frequently aspirational rather than a hard filter. If the role lists soft skills as the main requirement and the experience line is in the "preferred" section, apply. If you can mirror the wording of the advert (communication, flexibility, reliability) and show transferable experience from school, volunteering or weekend work, the experience gap closes faster than candidates assume.
How can a tool help me write a first CV when I have no work history?+
CV tailoring tools like Sausage Dog do the hardest part automatically: matching your CV language to the exact wording of the advert. For a school leaver this is the difference between a CV that gets filtered and one that gets read. You paste the job advert in, paste a short summary of your school, hobbies and any work or volunteering, and the tool produces a tailored CV that mirrors the screening signals the advert is using. It removes the "I do not know what to write" problem completely.
The shortest path from here to an interview
Open the advert. Find the three or four phrases the employer repeats. Put those exact phrases at the top of your CV. Or just paste the advert into Sausage Dog and let it do that part for you. The hard bit is not writing a CV. It is making the words match.
Tailor my first CV free