Personal Career
Portfolios
Career Work Exploration 20/30
What is a Career Portfolio?
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A career portfolio is a collection of
purposefully selected items that you will
gather throughout your life to illustrate your
skills, values, abilities and interests.
Like a wallet:
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Prized possessions and what is important to you
Documentation that describes you and your
capabilities
Living document and is an on-going project.
Your portfolio is limited
only by your imagination!
Many types of portfolios:
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Personal Career Portfolios
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Art or Design Portfolios
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Broad sampling of the best of an artist’s work.
Professional Development Portfolios
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Demonstrate career development, activities,
abilities, and employability of an individual
List personal growth plans
Employability Skills Portfolios
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Acquisition of generic employability skills
Benefits of a Career Portfolio
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For the student
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Contributes to the student’s sense of
accomplishment
Provides materials to use in preparation for more
education and/or job interview
Connects home, school and community activities
Promotes personal accountability
Develops awareness of student’s own knowledge,
skills, and values through self-assessment
Assess knowledge, skills and goals,
Competitive in today’s labour market
Identify areas that require further study
Why have a career portfolio?
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Job Opportunities
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Self-Evaluation Tool
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Assisting in skill and goal
development
Career Development
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Job interview
Evidence of skills
Transactions
Further Education
and Training
How to use a portfolio
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Video
Steps involved in developing a PCP
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Collect
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Select
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Collect items that tell a story about something important
you have done or items that are a permanent record of an
accomplishment.
Select those that will exhibit your capabilities for a specific
reason. You may add or remove items depending on how
you plan to use your portfolio and when.
Reflect
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Allows you to ask yourself questions about the learning
connected to the portfolio item.
Collect
Select
Reflect
Reflective Questions:
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Reflection is a lifelong
process. It helps you look
at what you have done,
analyze your results,
measure your successes
and adjust your conduct in
the future. You did this
naturally when you were a
small child discovering how
the world worked.
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What have I learned?
What skills did I develop?
What have I noticed?
What would I do differently?
What strengths and
weaknesses are shown in
this item?
How does what I am doing
affect my future choices?
TIME and EFFORT – take pride in your work!
What should you collect?
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Transcript
Attendance record
Resume
Cover Letter
Letter of references
Certificates from school
An essay, report or article
TOKW
Pictures – teams, etc.
Poetry, quote, book
Values
Skills
Short Term Goals
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Long Term Goals
Abilities
Strengths
Faith Development
Brief description of courses
taken
Personal interest inventories
Membership
Extracurricular activities
First Aid, Babysitting, WHMIS
Trophies, badges, crests
Training
Hobbies
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Thank you
cards/Letters
Self-Assessment
results
Travel experiences
Languages
Involvement in sports
Involvement in
clubs/associations
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PowerPoint
Presentations
Training Courses
Newspaper articles
Log Book
How to organize your sections
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Intro (cover page, table of contents)
Employment Section (resume, cover letter, letter of
reference, job application, interview)
Personal Information (self assessment)
Academic Skills (transcript, report card, work)
Skills
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Teamwork Skills
Personal Skills
Awards and Accomplishments
Career
Volunteer
Others ….
Other
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Blueprint
Employability Skills
SAMPLES
How to create your sheets?
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Microsoft Publisher
Clip art/borders/colours
Word
Pictures
Fonts/White Space/Spacing
Wordle
Important Dates:
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What you need:
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March ________
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Binders/Sheet Protectors
or website
List of items
First Deadline
Marked
June _______
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Final Deadline
Improved Mark
HANDOUT
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Key things to
remember.
Rubric
Table of Contents –
Section (handout)
A masterpiece is not
created in one day!