CV for schools
Help students understand the document they are building.
CV helps students prepare an application CV for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States or the United Kingdom — and understand why the document changes between destinations. This page is for the teachers and counsellors who work with them.
A CV convention is not a language setting.
A student applying to a German university may need a CV that follows German conventions, written in German or in English. Those are two separate decisions, and CV keeps them separate: the destination sets the convention, and the document language is chosen on its own where the application context allows it.
This matters because details that are common in one application context can be unnecessary or out of place in another. CV changes the available fields and defaults for the selected destination and briefly explains what is included and what is left out. The interface and the explanations are available in English, German and Chinese; the document itself is written in German or English, depending on what the destination allows.
The explanations are part of the tool.
CV is designed to support judgement, not to hide it. While students work, they can read why a field is shown, optional or left out — and they are reminded that country conventions are only a starting point. A university, scholarship provider, employer or authority may give more specific instructions, and those come first.
The tool also asks students to keep official names, original grading scales and qualification wording as they are, rather than claiming an equivalence that has not been verified. It does not write, improve or score their content, and it does not verify facts or judge what best represents an individual student. That part of the work stays with the student and the people advising them.
A simple workflow for a lesson or counselling meeting
- Check whether a CV is required.
Start with the receiving institution's current instructions. Some application routes do not request or accept a separate CV.
- Choose the purpose, destination and document language.
Ask the student to explain each choice. This makes the distinction between application context and language explicit from the beginning.
- Enter facts without rewriting the student's story.
Use official names and original grading scales. Keep descriptions concise and accurate. CV does not generate text on the student's behalf.
- Review what changes between destinations.
Switch between two relevant countries and look at the fields, defaults and explanations that change. Discuss why the difference exists and whether the receiver has issued a more specific instruction.
- Review the PDF as an application document.
Check names, dates, chronology, qualification wording, relevance and length together before the student submits it anywhere.
What CV does — and what it deliberately does not do
CV does
- apply the document conventions of the chosen destination
- separate convention from document language
- explain important inclusions and omissions
- structure student-provided information into a PDF
- let students keep or export a draft on their own device
CV does not
- write, improve or score a student's content
- verify claims or qualification equivalence
- replace current instructions from the receiving institution
- submit an application
- provide school accounts, shared student records or mentor workflows
Student CV data stays with the student.
No account is required. Information entered into the CV form is processed in the student's browser and is not sent to or stored on Made For Education servers. Students can work in a single browser tab, choose to keep a draft on their device, or export a draft file that they store themselves.
For a school, this means there are no accounts to set up and no student CV data to hand over in order to use the tool. Students should still treat downloaded PDFs and exported draft files as personal documents and store them carefully.
A focused tool, not a student-management platform.
CV is intentionally a small, single-user tool. It has no school accounts, shared records or mentoring workflows. Schools looking for support across the wider student journey — from admission to university application — can learn about Kompass, Made For Education's mentoring platform for international schools.
Learn about Kompass →Use CV with a student.
CV is free to use, without an account or sign-in.