How to Write Chevening Essay (Tips From Alumni)

As Chevening Scholar 2017/2018, i would like to share some tips regarding Essay. This essay become main assessments to seek the right candidate. The word “right” means your personal experience, purpose and goal are fit with their interest and program. Our duty is making story telling that makes the reviewer understand. Therefore, we need understand each question in chevening application to create good naration. I will share my chevening essay in here

Essay Question

• Essay 1: Leadership and Influence Question
  Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

There are some main point from leadership essay :

A. “Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries”
B. Explain how you meet this requirement
C. Using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

Chevening clearly mention about individual who will be future leader or influencer in home country. It means you need to write you leadership example in you pas experience regarding business, social project or in company.

You dont need to be boss, pioneer, founder to show your leadership skills. leaders is an action that has an impact on society, company and organization. The scale start from small things to the biggest. We need to explain the problems to be resolved, the further steps, and the results. Some people use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to write leadership experiences. With STAR, it will help you to show some evidence that Chevening ask for.

How many examples need to be submitted in the essay? You can give 1 until 3 examples as long as it give enough information in essays.

In My case:
I tried to describe 3 different projects, in business, social organization and organizational experiences. In business,i succesfully established IT business which grow up from 2 founder to 7 employees. In the social aspect, I explained that I was part of the movement to change people’s habits from drunkenness and make products that have the same sensation as that. Hence, people will change their habits with non Alcoholic products. Finally, initiated the SME (Small Medium Enterprises) empowerment program in East Java Province that help entrepreneur increase their product value

• Essay 2: Networking
  Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship-building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity, using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

Chevening official provides several clues as follows:

A. “Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship-building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession”
B. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity
C. Using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

In the context of networking, Chevening expects their connections have an impact on profession. I found some essay focus to desbrice their quality of networking such as CEOs, founders, government or other important people without explaining the positive impact of having connection with them.

Having good relationships with high position person is a plus point. However, they hope that we can explain the use these relationships in our careers. You can process can start with how we get to know, how we communicate and how it impacts us.

Some of the applicants’ fatal mistakes is explaining to maintain this relationship through social media. Social media is only platform to stay connect people outside there. But,
how do you use social media to maintain?
Are you use slack for communicating your task?
are you use instagram to endorse them?
Is telegram helping you to create channel?
is zoom app helping you to create conference with your boss?
or something?
These action are expected by Chevening in networking essay.

In My case:
Since have bachelor degree, i obtain 2 national scholarship from Danone and Karya Salemba Empat organization. Those scholarship gave me chance to contribute their social project and gave me opportunity to become supervisor in their company without having recruitment process.

In entrepreneurial experiences, i join with one of the largest business organization in Indonesia called HIPMI. This organization allowed me to connect some entrepreneurs who become my business partner.

In other hand, my family quite famous in hometown which gave me opportunity to establish social movement and obtain donation to fund its organization.

• Essay 3: Study in UK
  Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form

Banyak sekali pelamar melakukan kesalahan yang fatal dalam penulisan Study in UK. walaupun terbilang sangat mudah dibandingkan essay lain, essay ini memberikan gambaran yang penting tentang kolerasi antara latar belakang pengalaman kerja atau pendidikan dengan plan kedepannya. Mari kita bedah instruksi tersebut.

A. Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses
B. Explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.
C. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form

Choosing three university seems easy for each candidate. Some of them access official website and found interesting information regarding their interest. They hope by gaining master degree in university A or B could help them contribute more in home country. But, those strategies doesn work in writing study in UK essay. We couldnt copy paste and paraphrase information in our essay.

As Chevening expected, each candidate should find “right” information which suit with your problems. Maybe, the lecturer or professor could help to solve your problem. In some case, their facility help you to do research deeply about their biotech or their agenda which will enrich our perspective to create policy. Those information could be gain by conducting research such as visiting their campus, joining some seminars/ educational exhibitions, emailing professors. Chevening would happy if we know more what we get in university.

Afterwards, our duty is writing about how those program could solve our problem or help our future career.

Why those courses could help your career?

Why their professor is your answer?

Why that business would help you expand your business?

In My case:

I chose Msc Enterprise in Leeds University as my first option. This program connects 10.000 small medium enterprises around UK which become my main purpose as an entrepreneur. This networking allow me to analyse the UK policy to support their SME and obtained SME owner’s perspective regarding policy and government support. I was not arguing about the curriculum or some lecturers, but, i prefer to share the hiden value of Msc Enterprise.

In other 2 universities, i mentioned about the main program of them. Warwick university focus on the practice skills for making appropriate judgments, then Notingham university encourage the businessman to utlize technology for their business.

• Essay 4: Career Plan
  Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country.

The last essay will complement your leadership background, networking and study purpose. Your experiences will become benchmark to measure your future plan and it should be both ambisious and realistic movement.

A. Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan
B. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals.
C. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country.

Career Plan Essay should describe in detail your plan returning in home country in long and short term. You have to breakdown your strategy into some stepping stone to explain your movement in company or organizations. What problems do you want to be solved?
What is your strategies?
What makes those strategies works?
I gave you an example.

Example 1:
In improving midwife quality in rural area, i encourage midwife to join seminars, collaborate with government and give them proper facility. An Candidate also establishing social organizations to facilitate midwifes to share their problem and knowledge.

Comment 1:
The candidates have responsibilty to desbribe the main problem of midwivery community. Afterward, the concept of improving their quality should be explained with the right program. For example, the main problem is about unignorance midwife with anthropology. Hence, the candidates should create program based on the problem such as researching local birth, mapping and create sollution about that.

This example will give you perspective that general statemen cannot help you pass chevening assessment. We need to explain clearly the main problem, sollution and strategies to solve it. it applies to short and long term goal. In long term goal, we need to extend our contribution within 10–15 years.
What your organizations will be?
Hows is your business?
What movement do you want to implement?
How you can expand your organization impact?
would you copy this concept elsewhere?
What other policies are made to support country capital?
Others.

In My case:
After experiencing 10 years in business, I will establish new business in agriculture and try to conduct export and import with UK. Based on data, Indonesia trade with UK increase 2% per year and UK potentially open opportunity to accept indonesia agriculture product. The demand of agriculture product in UK quite high and this country try to meet the demand by doing import. Indonesia has capacity to do export. I will be bridge between indonesia and UK.

In other hand, i purpose to contribute in well established vocational School in my hometown. i will develop cooperation concept between school and company. The concept labor supply and demand make school give more concern about their internal program. With my position as a founder, i have power to create Standard operational procedure (SOP) to be implemented in our social business. Those experience will enrich my knowledge in small medium enterprises and it help me to collaborate with british embassy program.

Conclusion :

Writing chevening essay require nice and broad concept. The 4 essay above become full story which give an brief about candidate. From there, Chevening can assess people’s abilities, levels of success and their potency to become leaders in home country. They know that each candidate have different background and they will wisely select candidates based their interest, program and politic needs. Our job is to create essay which easy to understand essay and provide a clear picture of our potential as a leader.

As my experiences to revisi hundred of essay, there are still many candidates writing essays as they focus on general statement not the actions. This made the essay jumping and uncomfortable to read. To improve it, practice writing essay will help you to find your potential. Ask your friend, boss or proofreading services to obtain people perception. are their perceptions the same as what we want to write?

Hopefully this information is useful for prospective Cheveners, Good Luck!