Be a Program Director

Applications to volunteer as a Program Director at VCE Summer Tutoring for 2026–28 closed on Friday 17th April.
If you have a late enquiry or application, please send us an email at recruitment.selection@vcesummertutoring.au.

Why choose to become a Program Director?

The Program Director team is responsible for planning and delivering our entire summer school for VCE students, mobilising a giant base of uni student volunteers to do so. The program supports high school students experiencing educational disadvantage.

Along the way, Directors will receive significant support from the VCE Summer Tutoring Committee and our experienced, returning volunteers. It’s a great environment to learn management and professional skills for the first time (or to level up skills you already have!).

Sheriline Lay
2024-2025 Program Director

“The Director role has given me a new sense of responsibility and insight into my own capabilities in creating positive change in the world. It is an amazing opportunity to learn new technical, logistical, and communication skills, as well as experiencing a role that brings so much fulfillment as you get to see, firsthand, students across Victoria getting the academic support they need and volunteers becoming friends from our program. I loved VCE Summer Tutoring as an academic tutor, and I loved it even more when stepping up and becoming a Director.

“P.S. There is also nothing cooler than being a uni student that runs a charity 👏”

Continue reading for detailed information on the Program Director role and application process.

Table of contents

1. Program Director Role Information
2. Instructions for Application
3. Preparing your Application: General Advice
4. Preparing your Application: Résumé
5. Preparing your Application: Cover Letter
6. Preparing your Application: Vision Statement

(1) Program Director Role Information

1.1 — Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Applicants must:

• Have completed at least six months of tertiary study before the program in January
• Hold a valid Victorian Working with Children Check (or equivalent)
• Agree to complete this role alongside the Volunteer Academic Tutor role

Current university students and/or individuals with a strong connection to the VCE Summer Tutoring program are highly encouraged to apply.

Key Selection Criteria of this role are:

1. Values and Impact
   • Deep understanding of educational disadvantage and passion for the social impact of student-led volunteering, particularly for individuals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
   • Alignment of decision-making, self-management and conflict resolution with a clear set of personal principles and program values, even during times of high pressure.
2. Collaborative Capabilities
   • Nuanced communication style that energises others and clearly conveys ideas for each audience.
   • Ability to develop and maintain relationships with external supporters through professional and tactful conduct.
3. Leadership Style
   • Empathetic and democratic leadership style, with a commitment to promoting growth in others and approaching conflict resolution rationally and fair-mindedly.
   • A calm and rational disposition in response to feedback, with the ability to engage in self-reflection and apply good-faith criticism to improve processes or skills.
4. Problem-solving and Operational Diligence
   • Practised project management skills, taking a proactive approach to forward-planning, sequencing tasks and adapting to changing circumstances.
   • Composed risk and conflict management, addressing or escalating challenges in a timely manner and gathering all inputs required for informed decision-making.
5. Eligibility Requirements
   • Hold a valid Working with Children Check (WWCC) or equivalent, such as a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) Registration.
   • Have completed six months of tertiary study before the program in January.
   • Conduct this role alongside the Volunteer Academic Tutor role.

1.2 — Role Description

More information about the role is available in the role description, including details about the time commitment, responsibilities and key benefits.

1.3 — Additional Resources

The previous Director team is preparing two additional resources for you to refer to when you are crafting your application:

1. a recorded Q&A on the Director role and top application tips,
2. 2025-2026 VCE Summer Tutoring Annual Report, including a summary of our organisation and 2025-2026 program.

Check back soon for the release of these resources...!

(2) Instructions for Application

2.1 — Application Process

The application process will involve submitting a written application, followed by an interview and submission of Vision Statement for shortlisted applicants. Written applications for this role are due 11.59pm, Wednesday 17 April.

Applicants should submit the following:

• application form providing us your basic information and documents you crafted
• cover letter explaining your interest in the role (one page max)
• résumé outlining your strongest work, volunteering, project or study experience (no more than two pages)

More information about the interview and vision statement will be provided closer to the time of the interview. Please note that contact details of two referees will be requested from shortlisted applicants.

If you have any difficulty with the file upload, please reach out to recruitment.selection@vcesummertutoring.au.

Use our application checklist to help you tick off everything you need!

(3) Preparing your Application: General Advice

Writing and tailoring application documents can be tricky and time-consuming, so here are our top tips and bits of guidance to make this process as seamless as possible for you.

3.1 — General Application Document Guidance

• Use Eligibility Criteria, Selection Criteria and Desirable Attributes (often referred to as Key Selection Criteria, or KSC) to prepare your application documents. The purpose of your documents is to demonstrate how your skills and experience align to the KSC.
  • Colour coding bullet points (résumé) and sentences (cover letter) for each KSC is a great strategy to check you have good spread across the KSC.
• Check that you’ve followed all application requirements. This helps your application shine by exemplifying your attention to detail and work ethic, and ensuring we have everything needed to make reviewing your application a breeze.
• Be consistent and proofread your documents. This includes formatting (font size, spacing, stylistic conventions, etc.), clarity (ensuring what you write makes sense, reads easily and is error-free) and finishing touches (ensuring documents are named correctly and display properly as PDFs).
• Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Have a friend, family member, or someone at your organisation look over your application to provide feedback or additional proofreading.

Program Directors have a substantial leadership responsibility over the program and its participants. Conveying strong skill alignment, attention to detail and ability to tailor communications for your audience are compelling ways to demonstrate valuable leadership capabilities and make a solid impression on the team reviewing your application documents.

(4) Preparing your Application: Résumé

Your résumé briefly outlines your experience, responsibilities and achievements across work or volunteer roles. We use your résumé to identify how your professional background aligns with the key skills and criteria we’re looking for in applicants.

Let’s break down the key sections to include in your résumé and what we’re looking for in each:

4.1 — Your Details

Please write your preferred first name and last name at the top, with your contact details (mobile number and email) on the line underneath. You may optionally add a LinkedIn profile link next to your contact details.

Do not include any other personal details on your résumé, e.g. age or date of birth, residential or postal address, relationship status, photos or descriptions of physical features.

4.2 — Education

For all of your courses at your current and previous tertiary institutions of study, please ensure you include:

• Your degree name (e.g. “Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences”).
• Any majors or specialisations (e.g. “Economics,” “Management (Human Resource Management)”).
• Commencement and completion dates (e.g. “Mar 2023 – Nov 2026“) or expected dates if yet to begin (e.g. “July 2024”) or unsure of when you will graduate.

It is not necessary to include marks, grades, proof of graduation or an academic transcript, nor is it necessary to include your high school studies.

Ensure your education is listed in reverse chronological order (most recent education at the top).

4.3 — Experience

For each of the organisations you’ve worked for that you’re writing about in your résumé, ensure you include:

• Your role or job title.
• Commencement and completion dates (e.g. “May 2023 – present”).

You may separate your experience into categories of your choosing (for example, into professional experience and volunteer experience), but please ensure you have clarified volunteer or employee status for each of your roles regardless of the division chosen.

Some other tips to help your experience shine are outlined below:

• Write a maximum of 2-3 bullet points per role, 1-2 lines each. Conciseness will make your experience and achievements pop, and is generally a great skill to demonstrate.
• Similar to your education, arrange your experience in reverse chronological order (most recent experience at the top of its section).
  • If your experience start and end dates have a bit of a tangled overlap, you can put any commitments that are “X - present” at the top and order your experience in reverse chronological order by end date.
• When describing your experience, begin your bullet points with “action verbs”. Common examples include: achieved, collaborated, coordinated, developed, delivered, liaised, managed, and planned.
• Try to articulate your role responsibilities and accomplishments in a single bullet point. This clarifies to people outside your organisation what you did (cool) and what impact or outcomes you achieved (REALLY COOL) in your role. Examples are below:
  • “Facilitated student forum discussion groups that generated 3 key recommendations for the University, and improved student sense of belonging by 25%.”
  • “Conducted fundraising calls with Faculty of Music alumni to source donations for new scholarship fund, raising $2000 to exceed donation target by 33%.”

4.4 — Skills and Interests (often called the “Personal” section)

This section is optional, but we love having the opportunity to learn about our applicants outside of their professional background.

Please include any of your technical or soft skills, languages spoken (and at what proficiency), certificates or credentials (e.g. Melbourne Plus) or extracurricular interests.

4.5 — Example Materials

• Program Director résumé example (PDF)
• Résumé template (Microsoft Word/Docx format)

(5) Preparing your Application: Cover Letter

Your cover letter expands on your previous experience and achievements, whether mentioned in your résumé or not. We use your cover letter to understand your motivations in applying for the role, and gain more context around aspects of your professional background (read: learn heaps more about what makes you AWESOME).

Let’s break down the key sections of the cover letter and some tips for each:

5.1 — Letterhead

Include the following letterhead at the top of your cover letter:

There is no need to include your own contact details or the organisation’s address in this letterhead.

5.2 — Introduction

Address the cover letter to the VCE Summer Tutoring Selection Panel, and include the following set of sentences:

• Write 1 sentence that outlines which role you’re applying for and how you heard about it (e.g. advertised on a specific website, referred by a recent volunteer).
• Write 1–2 sentences that briefly outline your motivations in applying for the role.

5.3 — Body Paragraphs

Include 2-3 paragraphs that outline how your experiences and achievements make you a fantastic applicant for the role in line with the KSC. Some tips for structuring your paragraph and discussing your experience are outlined below:

• Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that outlines its main idea. Particularly effective topic sentences make reference to the KSC and specific skills that are highlighted under each.
• You can use the STAR technique to provide examples of your experience. This involves introducing the situation you were in (S), identifying the task or responsibility of you or your team in that situation (T), what actions you specifically facilitated or took (A), and what results or outcomes were delivered from your actions (R).
• Aim to keep individual paragraphs short. We recommend splitting particularly bulky paragraphs into two at a point that maintains the sense and flow of your paragraph. In this case, there would be no need to add a topic sentence to the second paragraph.
• Don’t just rewrite your résumé. Your cover letter is an opportunity to expand on information in your résumé (e.g. clarifying aspects of situations or actions that otherwise don’t come through), and select examples from your experience that were not included on your résumé to demonstrate your skills.

5.4 — Conclusion

Include the following set of sentences to wrap up your cover letter:

• Write 1 sentence thanking the selection panel for their time to review your application.
• Write 1 sentence directing the selection panel to where they can contact you for more information or to discuss your application further.
• Write 1 final sentence about looking forward to upcoming aspects of the application process, and then wrap up with a sign off and your full name (preferred first name and last name).

5.5 — Example Materials

• Program Director cover letter example (PDF)

(6) Preparing your Application: Vision Statement

After you receive an interview invitation, you will be given additional time and resources including future recommendations made by the last Program Director team before your interview to prepare your vision statement. Your vision statement outlines: a) two recommended changes you would suggest for the program, and b) one aspect of the program that you would maintain.

We know it might seem like a lot of pressure to tell the people who have already run a program about the things you want to change, but don’t stress! We’re not looking for anything revolutionary, so let’s break it down:

6.1 — Key Features of Suggested Changes

What we are looking for is:

• Alignment with program values and mission
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Specificity and feasibility

An applicant could recommend addressing a gap, expanding program offerings, streamlining activities or improving systems to create a better program.

For example, this could look like noticing that in a previous program students really found a lot of utility in dedicated one-on-one tutoring blocks that were timetabled as weekly and consequently recommending in your application that these blocks be expanded to run multiple times a week. You could go on to explain that this would pack more value into the program for students and ensure that we are an organisation that takes stakeholder feedback seriously.

Reforms like these align with our program mission of fighting educational disadvantage, while demonstrating an understanding of existing gaps in the program and outlining clear strategies Program Directors can take to fill these gaps.

6.2 — Recommendations for Suggestions

Here are our top five pieces of advice for putting your vision statement together:

• Think critically about your ideas. What gaps do they fill? What are some potential shortcomings? Would they require additional resources, like a bigger budget? Why is your suggestion the preferred way to address the gap or opportunity you have identified?
• Consult resources produced by the Program Directors (e.g. Q&A video, Program Annual Report) to inspire and strengthen your ideas, particularly the methodology, data and program values supporting your recommendations
• Use varied recommendations as an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding across multiple aspects of the program.
• Balance explaining the benefit and relevance of your idea AND how you would implement it and overcome any potential challenges.
• Clearly signpost the start of each new recommendation, such as by using a topic sentence or an underlined heading, e.g. “Recommendation #1”.