Contemporary work calls for critical practitioners who can evaluate knowledge, drive change and create new ideas and employment. This requires our graduates to have a sufficiently formed professional identity with a strong awareness of and connection with professional practice, and the confidence and maturity to enact their capabilities at work. While higher education has paid significant attention to capability development, professional identity formation remains a relatively underexplored dimension of student employability. Denise will draw on her recent research to consider the meaning of professional identity, its importance for future employment and determining factors for higher education students. She will explore the important role of portfolios in fostering students’ professional identity and helping to shape their professional persona to enhance employability.

1. Using ePortfolios to develop
professional identity and
enhance student employability
Associate Professor Denise Jackson
Director, Work-Integrated Learning, School of Business and
Law, Edith Cowan University
IMAGE: BROOKE CAGLE FROM UNSPLASH.

2. What’s it all about?
• Scene setting - employability
• What professional identity means
• Why is professional identity important for higher education
students?
• How can we develop professional identity in HE students
• The role of portfolios

3. Employability:
Beyond the
skills
approach
Jackson (2016)
External
factors
Technical
expertise
Professional
capability
Ability to
transfer
capabilities
Career self
management
Professional
identity
Perceived
employability
Circumstance
/ mobility
Networking
Life
experience
Practical
experience
Employability

4. How do we measure student outcomes?
Jackson & Bridgstock (2018)
TRADITIONAL MEASURES
Grades Retention Satisfaction
SHIFT TO
GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES
Employment metrics Value of higher education League tables and PBF
UNIVERSITY POLICY

5. Employability is
“represented in simplistic terms as an
objective labour market outcome rather
than a complex problem featuring a
number of different actors”
Burke et al. (2017)
IMAGE: KOLAPO ONI FROM UNSPLASH.

6. Employability ≠ employment outcomes
Oversupply of graduates
(Karmel & Carroll, 2016)
Automation of traditional graduate
roles and casualization of
employment
(CEDA, 2015)
17 jobs over lifetime
(McCrindle, 2015)
Labour mobility, business
confidence, skills demand
(McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005)
Social capital
Cultural capital
Identity capital
Psychological capital
(Tomlinson, 2017)
Bias in recruitment
(Horverak et al., 2013)
Personal factors
(Guilbert et al., 2016)
External factors Blurring of relationship

7. Broader measures of graduate career outcomes
• Career satisfaction
• Perceived employability
• Meaning and importance of
current role
• Progression towards own
definition of career success
Jackson and Bridgstock (2019)

8. Developing employability
Extra-curricular activities
• Volunteering
• Participation in clubs and communities
• Part-time employment
• Engaging with professional associations
• Enactus
Co-curricular programs
• Competitions
• Peer / industry mentoring
• Professional networking activities
• Leadership programs
• Micro-credentials
IMAGE: ANDREW NEEL FROM UNSPLASH.

9. Developing employability
In-curricular initiatives
• Student exchanges
• Study tours
• Capstone initiatives
• Debates and guest speakers
• Competitions
• Skills programs
• Work-Integrated Learning
IMAGE: CRAIG WHITEHEAD FROM UNSPLASH.

10. • Understanding expected behaviours and standards
• An individual’s connection with the ideology, values, and
beliefs of a profession
• Being confident in one’s professional capabilities
• Performing as a professional
• Feeling satisfied when performing the role
• Aligning professional self within one’s general self
• “The ‘sense’ of being a professional
What is professional identity?

11. Definitions of professional identity
• “The formation of an attitude of personal responsibility
regarding one’s role in the profession, a commitment to
behave ethically and morally, and the development of
feelings of pride for the profession” (Bruss & Kopala, 1993, p.
686)
• “Develop[ing] knowledge, sets of skills, ways of being
and values that approach being identical to those held
by other members of the profession one is part of” (Trede
et al., 2012, p.380)
• “‘Learning to become a professional involves not only
what we know and can do, but also who we are
(becoming). It involves the integration of knowing, acting,
and being in the form of professional ways of being that
unfold over time’ (Dall’Alba, 2009, p. 34)

12. What students say: Understanding expected
behaviours and standards
“I was unaware before this experience how much work and effort is required
collectively by more than one department”.
“I gained invaluable insights on the importance of having an established
code of practice in the Accounting profession. It promotes one’s personal
and professional reputation, the company's image as well as safeguard
clients’ interests”.
“Joining into workplace culture with Friday afternoon drinks and finding out
how to fit in with that and how much to drink”.

13. What students say: Connecting with ideology,
values, and beliefs
“I have observed how people within the office and the contractors
communicate with each other and show respect to one another”.
“As a marketing professional it is vital to possess a professional attitude,
demonstrate communication skills and have the ability to build rapport
with others”.
“I have been given the opportunity to see certain mindsets utilised and
required to be successful in business and these attitudes and beliefs that
I have witnessed are some things that I will acknowledge and draw on
when I begin my professional career”

14. What students say: Being confident in one’s
professional capabilities
“I was able to identify some key performance standards expected in the
professional business environment and have strengthened my skills to
meet these”.
“It’s one thing to feel confident in yourself but it’s even greater when you
have the support and confidence from other team members and clients
who rely on your expertise and capabilities”
“Feeling respected and comfortable with the situation are the two main
aspects in the path to self-esteem and confidence”

15. What students say: Facing and overcoming
challenges
“There were differences in communication as they did not communicate
effectively to each other, and often their style of communication
developed conflict. They were not implementing effective relationship
management”
“It made me feel unsure, as it was my first real exposure to the work
place and did not know if this was normal”
“I felt unprepared and didn’t realise that PR relationship management is
not easy or positive. In class, there is this idea of ‘if you do this, this and
this, you will be able to achieve what you want’ whereas in reality there
are no set steps to achieving what you want”

16. MINDSET
Aligning professional self
within one’s general self
“The ‘sense’ of being a
professional
Dimensions of professional identity
FAMILIARITY
Understanding expected
behaviours and standards
An individual’s connection with
the ideology, values, and beliefs
of a profession
CAPABILITY
Suitably skilled
Feeling satisfied when
performing the role
CONFIDENCE
Facing and overcoming
challenges
Being confident in one’s
professional capabilities

17. Why is developing professional identity
important in higher education?
STUDENTS
EMPLOYERS
EDUCATORS

18. What employers want

19. Key capabilities

20. Why is professional identity so
important?
• Enables more seamless transition from
university to the workplace
• Need confident and capable workers to
disrupt the status quo and initiate change
and innovation
• Need critical practitioners who can evaluate
knowledge and competing ideas and drive
continuous improvement
• Improves workplace performance
• Enhances personal well-being

21. Framing professional identity development
Self-authorship Identity capital Persona

22. Self-authorship
Following
formulas Crossroads
Self-
authorship
Internal
foundations
Baxter Magolda (1998)

23. Stages of self-authorshipFollowingformulas
• Lacking
awareness
of own
values
• Deferring to
authority
• Externally
defined
identity
Crossroads
• Recognising
importance of
own values
and input
• Accepting to
evaluating
knowledge
• Realising need
to question
authority
• Catalysed by
events that
encourage
reflection
Self-authorship
• Starting to
trust internal
voice
• Deferring to
own identity
• Interpreting
knowledge
and choice
• Listening but
not bounded
by others
• Realising what
is important to
them
• Starting to
offer new
perspectives
Internalfoundations
• Acting on the
basis of
internal beliefs
and sense of
self
• Streamlining
professional
and general
self
• Reconciling
multiple
identities
• Contributing to
their
profession

24. Identity capital
• Students’ ownership of their career and
employability development
• Develop a self-perception and self-concept to
channel and frame their achievements and
experiences
• Create a personal narrative aligned to intended
profession and articulate to potential employers
• Develop tools for self-presentation
• Influence of social capital
Tomlinson (2017)
Jensen and Jetten (2015)

25. Persona and personal brand
• Growing need for students to develop a
public profile (Ajjawi et al., in-press)
• Increased blurring of personal and public
profiles
• Profiles highlight strengths, capabilities
and achievements to articulate fit in
different professional environments
• Workplace learning enables students to
experiment with particular personas that
align to professions they are interested in
(Ajjawi et al., in-press)

26. Developing professional identity - key factors
• Role of socio-cultural context
• Importance of personal agency
• Fluidity: “Educators must now design their curricula in
ways that will help graduates engage with a
constantly shifting professional identity” (Trede et al.,
2012, p. 382)
• Non-linearity: “there is no single path towards
becoming a professional, no unidirectional trajectory
from novice to professional” (Adams et al., 2016)
• Identity warranting (Holmes, 2013)
• Identity disruption (Ashforth & Schinoff, 2016)
• Pre-professional identity – remember who they are
(Jackson, 2016)

27. Student trajectory across HE landscape
Jackson (2016)

28. Reflection for professional identity
development
Familiarity, confidence and capability
• Encourage students to make sense of their
(workplace) experiences and their professional
identity
• Encourage students to consider ‘crossroads
moments’ and turn inward
• Student-centred learning where they question
what they experience, think critically and start to
take a positional stance
• ePortfolio invaluable for facilitating and
documenting this reflective journey

29. Reflective activities - familiarity
Structured written reflection
Example - 500 word reflection on an example of poor professional practice and unethical
behaviour:
• Locate and tag code of conduct / industry standards for profession or industry
• How code of conduct was breached
• How it conflicted with personal values, and
• How observations will influence behaviour in future work roles.
Huddle
Reflect on an/any unforeseen situation(s) that you found confronting and describe how you
responded:
• How did you react initially (feelings and behaviours)?
• What did you do to resolve this dilemma?
• Did it help? Why, why not?
• What could you do differently next time?

30. Reflective activities - capabilities
Capabilities review
• Pre- and post-WIL capabilities audit (student) and post-WIL capabilities audit
(workplace supervisor).
• Identify capabilities where they feel they have met graduating student standard (with
examples)
• Identify capabilities which require skill development and capacity building to meet
graduating student standard and outline how over next 12 months
Career development plan
Identify career goals, required capabilities, barriers to achieving and pathways for
progressing
Video reflection
Synthesise achievements and strengths to demonstrate ability to operate as a
professional in a chosen career.

31. Reflective activities - confidence
Networking analysis
• Students rate their confidence in a range of Networking Capabilities
• Students explain the evidence they would use in a job application/interview for each of the
capabilities they rated highly
• Students identify ways to develop the capabilities they rated as 1 or 2 and complete a
Networking Capability Development Plan
• Students complete a Networks Review where they consider their networks and how these
may impact on their future career.
• Write a personal reflection (max 500 words) on:
• A workplace situation when they achieved success in a networking capability (interpreting
the situation, evaluating their feelings, and how this may affect their future career or
learning).
• A challenging workplace situation due to weakness in a networking capability (evaluating
how they felt, why this capability has not been developed, and how they can address this
going forward).
• Given their workplace experiences, the benefits gained from extending their networks and
how this may impact on their future career.

32. Reflective activities - confidence
Personal branding
• Students read through resources on social media presence and personal branding
• Students consider the personal brand of an established professional in their desired
career or industry.
• Students evaluate their own personal brand and identify key strengths and some ways to
improve their brand for career purposes.
• Students write a written reflection on their personal brand and develop a plan to enhance
their personal brand.
• Write a personal reflection (max 500 words) on their own personal brand and develop a
plan to enhance your personal brand. Please include details on:
– What are your values?
– What are you interests?
– What are your skill sets?
– How well does your personal brand reflect your values, interests and skill sets?
– How are you promoting your personal brand? What online tools are you using?
– How effective is your online profile?
– In what ways could the promotion of your personal brand be improved over the next 12 months?

33. Takeaways
• Professional identity encompasses familiarity,
confidence, capability, mindset
• Developing professional identity in higher
education students requires purposeful
curriculum design
• ePortfolios play a critical role in encouraging
students to reflect on their experience, and
evidencing and articulating their achievements
IMAGE: DYLAND GILLIS FROM UNSPLASH.

34. References
Adams, R., Daly, S., Mann., L., & Dall’Alba, G. (2016). Being a professional: Three lenses into design thinking , acting and being. Design Studies,
32(6), 588-607.
Ajjawi, R., Boud, D., & Marshall D. (in-press) Repositioning assessment-as-portrayal: what can we learn from celebrity and persona studies? In
Bearman M, Dawson P, Tai, J, Ajjawi R, Boud D (Eds). Reimagining University Assessment in a Digital World. Springer.
Ashforth, B., & Schinoff, B. (2016). Identity under construction: How individuals come to define themselves in organizations. Annual Review of
Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 111-137.
Baxter Magolda, M. (1998). Developing self-authorship in young adult life. Journal of College Student Development, 39(2), 143–156.
Bruss, K. V., & Kopala, M. (1993). Graduate school training in psychology: Its impact upon the development of professional identity. Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 30(4), 685.
Dall’Alba, G. (2009). Learning professional ways of being: Ambiguities of becoming. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41(1), 34-45.
Holmes, L. (2013). Competing Perspectives on Graduate Employability: Possession, Position or Process? Studies in Higher Education, 38(4), 538–
554.
Jackson, D. (2018). Evaluating the capabilities associated with professional identity: Comparing the perspectives of work-integrated learning
students and their workplace supervisors. Vocations and Learning, 12(2), 245-266.
Jackson, D & Bridgstock, R. (2018). Evidencing student success and graduate employability in the contemporary world-of-work: renewing our
thinking. Higher Education Research and Development 37(5), 984-998.
Jensen, D., & Jetten, J. (2015). Bridging and bonding interactions in higher education: social capital and students’ academic and professional identity
formation. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(126), 1-11.
Paterson, M., Higgs, J. Wilcox, S. & Villenuve, M. (2002). Clinical reasoning and self-directed 1earning: Key dimensions in professional education
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Pizzolato, J. (2005). Creating crossroads for self-authorship: Investigating the provocative moment. Journal of College Student Development, 46(6),
624-641.
Tomlinson, M. (2017). Introduction: Graduate Employability in Context: Charting a Complex, Contested and Multi-Faceted Policy and Research Field.
In Tomlinson M and Holmes L (Eds) Graduate Employability in Context. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-40.
Trede, R., Macklin, R., & Bridges, D. (2012) Professional identity development: a review of the higher education literature. Studies in Higher
Education, 37(3), 365-384.

35. Questions?