1. The Career Ready portfolio: From rhetoric to reality
Terry Young, Senior Educational Designer

2. Context Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash
Employability a strategic driver
Institutional plan
Better Employability outcomes for La Trobe students
Build confidence
Career Ready Advantage program implemented
In many institutions, improving employability for graduates is a common strategic driver. No one can guarantee future employability but we aim to have a students who are confident and self aware of their personal skills and abilities. In 2016, La Trobe University began a comprehensive Career Development program called in Career Ready Advantage
Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

3. You are already familiar with similar models
Great aspirational qualities for our students and ourselves

4. Career Ready Advantage Award
Requirements
Silver Award
Gold Award
Platinum Award
Learn activities 4 8 12
Do activities 2 6
Career Management activities 3 9
Career Ready Portfolio 
Students apply for one of three levels of the Award. Learn activities are curated online courses from Lynda.com, TED talks, podcasts and other open-access sources. Do activities are learning experiences that develop skills and may include activities in the curriculum, or those completed outside formal study, such as volunteering and paid employment. Career Management activities are earned through attendance at career development events and workshops, career consultations, and through completion of careers and employability learning in the curriculum. Career Ready Portfolios demonstrate students’ development of skills and attributes through provision of reflections on learning and evidence of activities. Portfolios can be assessed within the curriculum.
Students apply for one of three awards based on their experiences in the following specific areas.
Learn activities – online courses
Do Activities – Learning in curriculum and outside curriculum
Career Management activities – workshops/events/consultations
Submit a Career Ready Portfolio – reflection and evidence

5. The Challenge Curriculum Learning Co-curricular experiences
These domains are are often perceived as separate experiences by students and staff.
Career Ready Program addresses and facilitates learning outside the curriculum but had limited integration with discipline specific subjects.
How do we embed employability into curriculum?
Needed a unified approach, a single framework across the learning journey for a student
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

6. Employability Initiative
The Challenge
Employability Initiative
Curriculum
Learning
Portfolio
Co-curricular
experiences
How can any subject engage with Career Ready and the personal learning journey of students?
How can teaching staff engage in a simple way
How can students journey be directed through one system
The answer is portfolio

7. Portfolio Thinking Model
Collect
Learning/Skills/Knowledge
Experiences
Curate
Select key experiences
Reflect on your personal experience /learning
Connect
Personal attributes
Professional Standards
Present
Potential Employer
Professional Identity
The implementation was based on a Collect/Select/Reflect/Present portfolio model.
Students would progressively collect evidence of learning and experience across their course, and from this collection they would select key examples of evidence to demonstrate their skills and abilities. Personal reflections about these experiences would consolidate their confidence about their abilities. Their personal statement about identity would be presented in a professional portfolio for future employers to review.

8. Implementation Collect Select/Reflect Present CR Activities Curriculum
CR Workshops
Midpoint
Subject
Present
CR Portfolio
Capstone
Portfolio
What does this look like as an implementation model?

9. Collection of evidence
Career Ready activities
Self directed learning/ Volunteering/ Part time Employment/ Career development
Key skills for employability developed across many subjects in a course
Describe CR Activities
Volunteering/ Part time work/ Career development/ Overseas exchange
Describe Curriculum activities
Discipline specific/ Research/ Groupwork/ Business planning/ Project management/ Presentations/ Communication
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

10. Select and Reflect Workshops
Workshops on Personal/ Graduate and Professional Identity.
Midpoint Subjects reviewing discipline specific identity, reflect on learning progress
Discuss workshops

11. Present – Career Ready Portfolio
Create a digital portfolio to represent your professional identity, philosophy and evidence your experience and skills
Discuss a CR Portfolio
Generic
Custom discipline specific

12. Implementation Collect Select/Reflect Present CR Activities Curriculum
CR Workshops
Midpoint
Subject
Present
CR Portfolio
Capstone
Portfolio
Personal Evidence Library
Career Ready Award Application
There are many activities being experienced and delivered but what we need is a common framework to support the development journey.
Guess what that should be?
PebblePad.
But it needs to be more than just a repository.
We need a Personal Evidence Library to hold our assets together
and a reward framework, the Career Ready Advantage Award
These are used progressively over the student journey from year one to final year

13. Two mechanisms Personal Evidence Library
A simple method to collect and reflect
A ongoing collection of evidence of learning and reflection
From curriculum
From co-curricular activities
Career Ready Advantage Application
Apply for Graduate Position
LinkedIn profile
Selection criteria
Interview video
Apply for Awards
What functions do they offer?
Personal repository
Reward and recognition framework

14. Career Ready Evidence Library
So what is the Evidence library and how does it work?

15. Collect - Employability evidence in the Curriculum
A simple approach to encourage collecting evidence from any subject.
No need to know PebblePad
No need to design an activity within PebblePad
Simple for all staff and students
But of course we would encourage staff to use the full benefits of designing an activity using PebblePad but it is not a mandatory

16. Collect
Reflections and evidence from Curriculum

17. Collect from Career Ready Activities

18. Career Ready Portfolio Evidence Library

19. Career Ready
Advantage
Application

20. Recognition of activities

21. Preparation for job applications

22. Two mechanisms Personal Evidence Library
A simple method to collect and reflect from many subjects
A collection of evidence of learning and reflection
Address Professional Standards
Use to support your professional identity development activities
Career Ready Advantage Application
Apply for Graduate Position
LinkedIn profile
Selection criteria
Interview video
Apply for Awards

23. Career Ready Award Application
Implementation
Collect
CR Activities
Curriculum
Select/Reflect
CR Workshops
Midpoint
Subject
Present
CR Portfolio
Capstone
Portfolio
Evidence Library
We encourage and facilitate the development of a LinkedIn Profile from Year 1 supported by CRA
Career Ready Award Application
LinkedIn

24. What is the result for a student? #Confidence
About Me
Selection Criteria
Resume
Interview Preparation
Portfolio
Confidence
Preparedness
LinkedIn

25. Does it work? Early days Feedback from Careers Team Adoption
Feedback from academic staff
The outcomes of this implementation are currently not yet recorded, as this program is a course wide program and we are only at the beginning of the 3-4 year implementation process. At this stage we can report on the current adoption and feedback from our stakeholders.
The Careers team are pleased that student activities from curriculum are being easily incorporated into the career development program. Integrating these activities in a systematic way has been a challenge in the past. The CRA activities are now referenced and promoted within previously closed LMS subjects.
Adoption into courses has commenced in various courses in Education, Health Sciences and Science. Discussions and implementation plans are under design and negotiation in many other disciplines. The general feedback has been very positive. It has been considered a useful common framework that spans many subjects, work experience programs and skill development activities; and can be referenced for other career development programs and graduate readiness activities.
The feedback received so far indicates that the model is viable in many different courses, hence scalable. The ability for the model to be customised to discipline specific professional standards/skills is considered to be highly valuable and is attractive to discipline leads who wish to embed these industry requirements into their courses.
Just like this picture, we have planted the seeds and we have a seedling. It needs to be nurtured. It has the potential to grow into something amazing.

26. Reflections What/So What/Now What Sound in theory and practical design
Invest in building confidence with key stakeholders
Design discipline specific models
Encourage ownership
Be patient
A single common framework that all stakeholders can use.
The option to customize the activities and portfolio for any discipline.
Flexible/customisable
Reportable/tracking
Simple connection to any subject – collection/reflection
Or design a more comprehensive activity
Default framework available
Available for all students

27. Thank
you