How to List Continuing Education on a Resume with 2 Examples

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Continuing education is any formal education you pursue after finishing your degree, whether it’s a university course, online degree program, or certification.

While some continuing education programs are optional and merely boost your resume, in many specialized fields, continuing education is mandatory to maintain a license.

3 steps for putting continuing education on your resume

Follow these three steps to explain how your continued education makes you a more qualified candidate:

1. Decide where to list continuing education on your resume

Continuing education should be listed under your resume’s education section. However, if you’re highly qualified in your field and have many relevant continuing education courses to list, create a separate “Continuing Education” section on your resume instead.

You can also put professional development, such as workshops, training, and seminars on your resume in either the “Education” section, or a separate “Professional Development” section.

2. Organize your qualifications with the most relevant listed first

If one continuing education course you took is particularly relevant to the role, list it first so the employer notices it.

However, if all the entries in your continuing education section are equally relevant, then default to ordering them with the most recent first.

Exclude any continuing education that’s irrelevant to the job you’re applying to. For example, if you’re planning to switch fields into accounting, leave out creative writing courses you’ve taken.

3. Include specific details of your continuing education

Include all the necessary details related to your continuing education, including the:

Date it was awarded and expiration date (if applicable)
Awarding body or institution
Location (of in-person courses)
Grade or score (if provided)
License or certificate number

This information adds credibility to your resume by proving you’re qualified.

If you have any licenses to include on your resume, add the date it was awarded and when it expires to show employers that you meet the job requirements and can practice in your field.

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Examples of how to list continuing education on a resume

Below are two examples of how to list continuing education in different sections of your resume:

Education section (example)

Here’s an example from a registered nurse resume with the continuing education listed in the resume education section:

Why this is a good example:

This nurse lists their license and continued education certificates directly under their nursing degree, ensuring their credentials are easy to read.

Continuing education section (example)

Here’s an example of a continuing education section on a marketing resume:

An example of how to list continuing education on your resume in a separate section.

Why this is a good example:

The applicant clearly lists their continuing education along with the years each course was completed, following the same formatting as an education section to make it easily scannable.
They also include relevant coursework from their online marketing course, which shows employers what skills they learned.