What is a Portfolio ?

1. What is a Portfolio? Linking for E-literacy Project 2012. Debbie Whitehead.

2. What is a portfolio? A portfolio is a way of documenting all aspects of your professional and personal growth as you progress through your work life and/or career. It is a compilation of documents and records. Your portfolio is a collection of documents of significant events in your life and/or work life. It is a way to remember and keep track of experiences and achievements and provide evidence of them when you need to.

3. What should it include? Your portfolio can include: • descriptions of your activities and achievements, E.g. descriptions of a research project you did, award you won in the state debating competition • transcripts of your academic records from your education and training • professional development log with descriptions of topics covered in any conferences, workshops or short courses etc. • written references from employers or colleagues (for example, from a past current employer, or a client who has appreciate the service you have provided. • official letters certificates . E.g for example, a First Aid certificate, licenses or police checks. • examples of your work – E.g photos of things you have made or documents that you have developed or published. • Your career plans or learning plans • CV or Resume • Job descriptions – current and past

4. Why have a portfolio? A portfolio may be used for many things as we progress through our lives or careers. It is a very important and useful tool to have when we need to: • Put a resume together to meet the selection criteria in a job application. • When human resources managers ask us for information on our current skills it is easy to locate information. • When applying for a further education course it helps us to locate relevant information for the application • It also helps to locate information more easily when developing an RPL application for a course or qualification we want to do. • When making a career change it helps us to develop career plans and to identify skills and skills gaps.

5. Keeping records of your activities Your portfolio is a collection of documents of significant events in your life and/or work life. It is a way to remember and keep track of experiences and achievements. Because of this, it should not just contain ‘official documents certificates’, you should also keep a record that will help you to remember why that event was important and to record what your learned, what insight you gained from it. There are a few ways in which you can do this. Some ways may include: • Reflective journaling and blogging • Keeping a personal and professional register/log and writing what you gained from each event

6. Keeping records of your activities There are a few ways in which you can keep track of what you learned and what insight you gained from your activities. Some ways may include: • Reflective journaling and blogging • Keeping a personal and professional register/log and writing what you gained from each event

7. Case study example You attend a workshop that being run at local council focusing on their new ‘sustainability education program’. The workshop included providing a range of ideas on how we as individuals can change some of our habits to recycle, reuse or to cut down on wasting resources. You leave the workshop knowing that they really hadn’t told you anything that you didn’t already know, and thinking that it was wasting your time.

8. Case study example Later you sit quietly with a cuppa and reflect on the experience. • What happened in the workshop? • What ideas were raised? • How did you feel at the time? Why did you feel like that? Now change your questions to yourself: • What did you actually gain from the workshop? • How can you use this information in the future?

9. Approach 1- Reflective Journalling February 15th 2011- I attend a workshop on sustainability at the local council buildings. The workshop included: • Ways of saving and reusing paper around the home and workplace. • Ways to reuse plastic bags and bottles around home and work • Ways to shop in bulk to reduce packaging • Where to recycle ink cartridges and old mobile phones When I left, the workshop I was very frustrated because I felt it wasted my time and effort to attend, I already knew all of that! But later when I was thinking about it, I realised that I might already know that stuff but I really don’t always practice it. What I’ve gained from the whole experience is that I feel good about the fact that I am aware of sustainable practices, but I still have room for improvement when it comes to actually doing it. I think I should start by making a place where we can put old envelopes and paper to reuse for notes or shopping lists.

10. Approach 2- Professional Development log

11. How to Keep a portfolio It really doesn’t matter how you keep your documents as long as they are together and ordered so that you can find them easily. Some ways may include: • A ring binder – use dividers to create clear sections with headings such as academic certificates, professional development, work samples, CV, etc. You can then use plastic pockets to slip your documents in for safe keeping. • A filing cabinet – you can then use swing files clearly labelled with headings such as the ones mentioned above. Manilla folders also help to keep documents ordered. • E-porfolio –there are many websites now that allow you to store your information safely online in electronic format. To do this you will need to scan your documents (and still file them safely) and upload them to the site to access when you need to.

12. Want to know more? You can see more on the website: http://linking4eliteracy4students.coonarahouse.org.au/Portfolios This page has some web sites to visit and it also gives you some more information on RPL portfolios and e-portfolios