Elena Prokopets
It’s no secret that childcare workers can be found practically everywhere. From daycares and schools to the homes of families. There will always be a need for those who work with children — and even more so now.
Ongoing labor shortages across the country are finally forcing public employers to overlook their compensation packages. At the same time, parents are increasingly willing to pay top dollar for skilled private tutoring as many maintain the pandemic-adopted practice of “learning pods” — educating their children in small groups with private tutors.
The bottom line: whether you’re looking for a live-in nanny job or a new position as a K12 educator, the timing is great. All you need to do is give your job application package a quick refresh. To help you with that, we’ve prepped this list of must-add skills for a childcare worker’s resume.
So What are Good Skills for Working With Children?
As any time of childcare worker, always remember this: You’re helping to raise the next generation of workers and leaders. Therefore, most employers will expect you to have a strong set of communication, mentoring, and behavioral management skills, paired with high emotional intelligence. To help children become well-functioning members of society, you’ll need to be able to effectively communicate with your wardens while also keeping your own emotions and behavior in check.
4 Groups of Childcare Skills to Swipe For Your Resume
When it comes to analyzing candidates’ resumes, employers especially pay attention to certain core competencies — communication, instructional, soft, and administrative skills.
In this post, we’ve lined up several sought-out resume skills for childcare that you should absolutely bring up on your resume!
Communication Skills
When creating an educator or nanny resume, be sure to highlight your communication skills.
Depending on the role, you may find yourself working with children as young as a couple of months to as old as their early teens. As many will see, children of any age communicate in vastly different ways from adults, and negotiating with them is a separate art.
Whether you are having to watch an infant for cues that tell you that they are ready for a feeding or diaper change. Or you’re having to listen to a child continuously ramble in strange slang terms, communication and listening are vital parts of the career of a childcare worker.
Therefore, be sure to mention the following communication skills on your resume:
- Active listening
- Friendliness
- Patience
- Non-verbal communication
- Strong written communication
- Delivering lectures
- Hosting group classes
Discover more interpersonal skills examples for your resume.
Instructional Skills
Most childcare workers are expected to also provide some form of education to their mentees, even if they aren’t working as K12 educators. Your resume is more likely to stand out from the pack if you can present a wide range of instructional skills.
Here are several great examples to include:
- Potty training
- Kid-friendly physical activities
- Developmental games
- Language tutoring
- Handicrafts
- Music and instrument lessons
- Arts and handicrafts
- Tutoring in a variety of school subjects
- Age-appropriate cooking lessons
Administrative Skills
Helping to care for children requires a lot of careful planning. After all, while children may not exactly crave structure, it does help to reinforce a sense of stability in them.
Separately, when employed by households, you also need to account for the personal schedules of other household members. Some families also expect their nannies to help with simple admin tasks like budgeting for various activities, coordinating play dates, or helping with afterschool activities management.
Hence, here are some administrative skills you want to include to your resume:
- Schedule management
- Extra curriculum classes management
- Organization of weekend trips
- Day-to-day schedule planning
- Child pick-up/drop-off coordination
- Development of long-term educational plans
Soft Skills
Soft skills aren’t just communication skills. They are a broader range of personal attributes you exhibit in various social situations. These skills are very important. Yet many don’t actively think about them as they believe it to simply be a matter of personality. This could not be any further from the truth!
Helping to raise and care for children requires a certain character type and characteristics such as empathy, compassion, and patience, paired with a level of kindness that allows you to build trustful relationships with the child and their parents.
Then there’s of course negotiation skills, which are definitely needed for when the child you work with has decided to begin questioning everything around them.
To make your childcare worker resume even more compelling, highlight the following soft skills:
- Empathy
- Emotional self-control
- Adaptability
- Positive outlook
- Creativity
- Conflict resolution
- Integrity
- Persuasion skills
So How Do You Say You’re Good with Kids on a Resume?
It’s best to emphasize that you are good with kids in your resume summary — the topmost header area where you highlight your main qualifications in 2-3 short sentences. You can add one of the following “pitches” as an example:
“Piano and singing teacher with a patient, child-first approach to tutoring. My goal is to help each student discover the passion for music no matter their natural abilities.”
“CPA-certified childcare worker, delicious cook, and expert in dinosaurs focused on a safe and nurturing environment for children.”
You can then further elaborate on your ability to get along well with kids by describing your past work experiences and duties. You can read more about how to list babysitting jobs on your resume.
