A “reference letter from employer for scholarship” is a written testimony on behalf of an employee, attesting that the employer has good knowledge about the employee. This type of letter is used to recommend the employee for a scholarship to the recipient.
This is written strictly for deserving candidates with good academic performance.
If you’re an employer whose employee is applying for a scholarship program, seeking assistance with a reference letter, and unsure about the process, you’re in the right place. I will simplify things for you by the time you finish reading this publication.
Reference letters, much like transcripts or resumes, are crucial details sought not only by academic institutions and scholarship providers but also by enterprises before accepting individuals into their systems.
Humans are unpredictable beings who can misbehave at the slightest blink of an eye. Therefore, those offering opportunities need to be sure about the individuals they are considering for employment, admission, or scholarship awards. This ensures they don’t end up wasting opportunities on individuals who wouldn’t be beneficial to themselves or society in the long run.
How To Write Reference Letter From Employer for Scholarship
While writing a reference letter for your employee who intends to grab a scholarship award, there are some things you should consider. They include;
Your Status in the Society Matters
Like I said earlier, writing a reference letter—in fact, anything that has to do with letters demands technical know-how.
But apart from the technical know-how, a reference letter writer is expected to be someone with some sort of esteemed status.
That is to say, for instance, Cambridge University demands a reference letter from their scholarship applicants, such a reference letter, for you to be on a safer side, has to come from someone of high status and quality.
Cambridge University would expect letterheads with a touch of societal influence, or at least, an introduction which reads, “I am the CEO of this or that enterprise/company”. The status of the reference letter writer comes with an aura, and first creates a very safe impression about the applicant, as someone who a higher person in the society can vouch for.
Hence, as an employer, you are perceived with distinguishable respect, which of course implies that your employee’s chance of being considered for a scholarship award is high.
Let your presentation match your aura
Now while you’re all over who you are, and your standing in your society, it also directly entails that your letter must be well written to correspond with your esteemed status.
This is where it becomes necessary to learn the skill of writing well and presenting your words with good grammar, comprehensive and coherent style.
By making good use of the language you’re writing with, punctuations, spellings, style and how you tell the story of your employee, you would have shown you’re well who you present yourself to be, and your employee who you’re testifying for deserves the time spent in building every sentence. And of course, like we say in Nigeria, “a lion cannot give birth to a goat”.
Recommended: How To Write Reference Letter for Scholarship
Know your employee’s academic background
How well do you know your employee? As an employer, you’re expected to have at least 80% knowledge about your employee, his/her background, both family and education.
If you don’t have complete knowledge about his academic background, request them to update you.
For instance, if you’re writing a reference letter for a masters scholarship, you must see your employee’s undergraduate transcripts, and semester grade point averages. So that whatever you’re writing matches the documents he/she attaches to the scholarship application form.
Discuss your experience working with your employee
How long have you worked with your employee and how has the experience been, compared to other employees? Talk about his/her respect for the company’s core values.
Most employers would not want to write reference letters to their employees, because they know their employees do not deserve the praises they will be rendering.
So if you accept to write a reference letter for your employee, it therefore means, you both had a very good relationship, and he/she served you well. It means you are proud of him/her and wish the best for him/her.
Talk about his unique skills, positive attributes and present instances of his exemplary actions
In a reference letter, this information about your employee is very important.
Talk about what makes him/her outstanding, the abilities, qualities and diligence. His/her positive contributions to the growth of your company, and how well you appreciate every effort he/she gave.
You must cite at least two instances where your employee did some of those amazing things and achieved some feat which got you very impressed.
This is to tell the scholarship awarders that the person you’re rooting for, will do as he/she has done while working with you for the past years.
Recommend and strongly recommend your employee for the scholarship
Everything you’re writing will come down to you strongly recommending your employee for the scholarship award he/she is applying for.
You can’t give them all that glorious information for nothing. Of course, you know if you were in that stead, you wouldn’t hesitate to offer your employee such an opportunity, so you have to strongly endorse him/her.
Reference Letter From Employer for Scholarship Template
Now, this is the template for a reference letter from employer for scholarship. With this template, your writing will have been made easier.
The template below is for reference without a letterhead.
Download Reference Letter From Employer for Scholarship Template it here. Never forget that when you’re writing a recommendation letter for scholarship that your address will be at the top left if you’re not using letterhead. The date of writing follows.
And, you should the recommendation letter format as a guide.
Read: How to apply for PTDF scholarship
Reference Letter From Employer for Scholarship Example
This is a good recommendation letter sample or reference letter from an employer;
Final Thought
Reference letters can be written by anyone, including professors or supervisors as far as you are in a position to do so. However, you don’t have to be a college professor or a religious leader. Even as an employer, you are eligible to write a reference letter for your employee who wants it.
But you must get familiar with the type of scholarship and the person. And of course, whomever you are writing the reference letter for, must recognise you as one of his/her referees.
If you want to know how to write a reference letter for a scholarship, the template above can be of help.
The primary thing about reference letters is acquaintanceship. You should also include your contact. This makes it beliveable and allows anyone to feel free to contact you.
Imagine how many people apply for a particular scholarship like CSC scholarship, PTDF and even Chevening scholarships, and how many of those numbers are later awarded the scholarship. No, the selections are not done randomly, they check out for the best, and only those that meet their expectations succeed.
So, it is important to understand how things are being done before doing it, so you don’t end up wasting time and resources in vain. With what I’ve explained, your success story is 50% ready, the other 50% is left with you to do what you ought to do.
Again, when you write a scholarship recommendation, you can either use a recommendation lettter template or learn how to write scholarship recommendation letter.
