career portfolio manitoba: eportfolio for employability

Career Portfolio Manitoba

Essential Skills ePortfolio for Employability

ePortfolio Community of Practice, Australia

October 29, 2010

Don Presant Linda Maxwell

Manitoba,CanadaSmall province in a small country

• Challenging geography– 650,000 sq km (UKx2)

• Diverse demographics– 1.18 m (712K in Winnipeg)– Labour force 624K (2007)– Aboriginals, EAL speakers (>270K)

• Diverse economy• Federal political structure• “Canada’s social science laboratory”

Canada’s Essential SkillsContextualized by workplace occupation…

1. Reading text2. Document use3. Writing4. Numeracy5. Computer skills6. Oral communication7. Thinking skills

– Problem Solving, Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Job Task Planning and Organizing, Significant Use of Memory, Finding Information

8. Working with others9. Continuous learning

Stakeholders:WEM & WPLARWorkplace Education Manitoba, Workplace PLAR

• Nonprofit partnerships of Government, Business and Labour

• WEM: workplace education in Essential Skills

• WPLAR: workplace Recognition of Prior Learning

wplar.ca

wem.mb.ca

The Essential Skills Portfolio Origins and character

• First immigrants, now “general”– Career changers (younger, older..)

• Reflection on life-wide learning of Essential Skills for employability

• Build confidence, improve “skills dialogue”– Make resumes & cover letters clearer, more

credible– Preparation tool for interviews

• More than ES: attitudes, specialized skills• Product: ring binder, from electronic

templates• 18 hours class time + c. 18 hours of

homework

Building the ES portfolio Extracting value from experience

1. Identify life experiences 2. Reflect to draw out human capital

• “KSAs”: Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes

3. Write outcome statements for your KSAs4. Group into areas of expertise5. Put it all together in a portfolio

• Title page, table of contents, introduction• Lists: skills, examples & outcomes statements• Evidence-demonstrations, documentation• Resumes and cover letters• Goals and plans (SMART goals)

The “e” factorAdvantages and opportunities

• Information Management– Collecting, archiving, making different versions

• Measureability– Frameworks, rubrics, summative tracking

• Interoperability– Communication with other ICT systems via APIs, open standards

• Sharing– “One to many”, digital copies, links to specific pages

• Multimedia– Video, audio, digital images, online presentations…and scanned docs

• Internet skills– Online research: documents, networks, Internet literacy

• Collaboration– Easy to add comments, edit, mentor, coach

• Personal Learning Environment– Integrated learning environment, professional network, digital

identity

Vision for Career Portfolio ManitobaCareer development for life

• All Manitobans• Learner owned• Lifelong• Lifewide: home, community, school,

work...• Based on (not restricted to) Essential Skills• Built through partnerships of stakeholders,

with WEM and WPLAR as “anchor tenants”• Globally aware, locally relevant

Choosing the platformThe “Mahoodle” ecosystem

Export artefacts(learning products)

Blended learning• Synch/asynch, in class/online• Exposition• Assess for comprehension • Build knowledge

Collect, Select, Reflect…Artefacts, commentary, dialogueNetworks

Peers, mentors

Mahara tools:Blog, forum, views

“Single Sign On”

USER DRIVEN

INSTRUCTOR LED

Other Web 2.0 tools:

Human capitalEmployabilitySkills transferKSA asset building

Oth

er a

rtef

acts

Submit for recognitionLinks to artefacts & views; assignments, evidence for outcomes

Choosing the supplierThe Development Manager (TDM)

Essential Skills ePortfolioProgram overview

• Adapt the paper curriculum• Leverage the “e” factor• Embed authentic ICT skills

– Use relevant software applications– Use accessible multimedia hardware

• Provide ongoing learning support– Gap training / PD for SMART goals using Moodle

ImplementationOnline tour

ImplementationWorksheets

ImplementationJob match summary

Next steps

• Pilot• Train the trainer• Iterate, adapt

– Audiences, delivery formats

• Complete the business plan• Build partnerships• Grow

• Other government departments• Other non-profits• Sector Councils • Individual employers• Post secondary institutions

Potential partners

Community of communities“Small pieces, loosely joined”

StudentRecords

OnlineCredentialVerification

Job Boards, Recruitment

Sites

PersonalNetworks,

Communities

OnlineMentoringServices

LocalizedLabour Market

Information

Employer HRManagement

Systems

GovernmentInformation

Portals

MahoodleHub

Web 2.0YouTubeLinkedInTwitter…

eGovernmentSingle Window

Service

Useful links• Career Portfolio Manitoba

– http://careerportfolio.mb.ca

• Workplace Education Manitoba– http://wem.mb.ca

• WPLAR– http://wplar.ca

• Contact emails:– Don Presant, Learning Agents Inc.

• don@learningagents.ca (Twitter: donpresant)

– Linda Maxwell, Keystone Adult Education Services Inc.• adulted@mts.net

– Phyllis Mann, Workplace Education Manitoba• PMann@wem.mb.ca