The document discusses different types of portfolios, including personal, academic, and professional portfolios. Personal portfolios communicate interests and accomplishments, academic portfolios highlight student development and achievement, and professional portfolios demonstrate skills and work experience relevant for job applications. The document focuses on developing a professional portfolio, noting it should include sections for a resume, skills, and careers information. It provides examples of documents and experiences that demonstrate skills employers seek. Overall, the document provides guidance on creating an effective professional portfolio for career and job applications.

1. Portfolios

2. • Are There Different Types of Portfolios?
• There are many different types of portfolios, depending on what you
hope to use your portfolio to accomplish.
• However, portfolios are commonly divided into three main
categories:
• Personal Portfolios
• Academic Portfolios
• Professional Portfolios

3. Personal portfolios
• They communicate who you are.
• Personal portfolios are used to collect things that show your interests
and accomplishments.
• It may feel more like a memory book with items that show sports
awards or participation, hobbies, family events, etc.
• Here is one example of a personal portfolio: Personal Portfolio Items
commonly found in a celebration portfolio may include favorite
songs, hobbies, interests, sports awards, pictures, videos, future
career and family goals, and dreams.

4. Academic portfolios
• They communicate your development as a student, highlighting your
academic development, performance and achievement.
• This could be in subjects as diverse as technological design, TV
production or landscape architecture.
• Projects can be included that show your ability to produce quality
work.
• An academic portfolio often includes sample work in some or all
subject areas.
• Projects may be included in the portfolio to demonstrate planning,
process and evaluation.

5. Professional portfolios
• They are rapidly becoming an essential part of the job interview.
• This type of portfolio not only reflects your best academic work, but also
the essential skills you possess, such as communication skills, personal
management skills and teamwork skills.
• This type of portfolio demonstrates your skills and what kind of worker you
are. Items commonly found in a professional portfolio are samples of work
completed at school or on the job, thank you letters you have received,
résumé, evaluation for a volunteer position or cooperative education
placement, etc.

6. • Since this course focuses on helping you design your future, our focus
will be on the professional portfolio.
• You are going to be planning and making some important decisions
that will impact on your future. The professional portfolio will help
you to keep your ideas, information, and goals clear.
•

7. Why Develop a Professional Portfolio?
• There are many reasons to establish a portfolio at the beginning of your
work life.
• a) A portfolio provides a good organizational tool for keeping track of your
career/work related documents. Such documents could include WHMIS
training, a certificate to operate a forklift, letters of reference, or an
employee of the month letter.
• When you need proof that you have a certain qualification, you’ll always
know where to find it.
• Throughout your career, you will be updating your portfolio, adding new
items and removing things that have become outdated (for example, proof
of your newspaper route from ten years ago). In this way, the portfolio
becomes a living document, a work in progress.

8. • b) Many employers and postsecondary institutions want to see the applicant’s portfolio during an
interview, to see evidence of achievements and qualifications.
• For this purpose, you should tailor your portfolio to the job you’re applying for, by selecting the items
that relate to the requirements and responsibilities.
• This type of portfolio would be somewhat smaller and more specific than the one you keep at home.
• When applying for any job, you should review the job description to see what qualifications the
employer has listed. What qualities do you think they are looking for? Review your portfolio to look
for examples of any related experience, or how you have demonstrated those skills in the past.
• For an employer looking for someone with good teamwork skills, experience doing the lighting for the
school play, volunteering for the blood drive, or playing on a school sports team, clearly shows your
ability to get along with others.
• The portfolio then becomes an essential tool in preparing your résumé and in getting ready for the
interview.

9. There are often three main sections in a
professional portfolio:
•
The Résumé Section
This section highlights your résumé as a final summary of all your skills, abilities, and experiences.
• The Skills Section
In this section, you can save sample documents that demonstrate your knowledge and skills.
• The Career Section
In this section, you can save information about careers of interest to you, your education plan,
documents outlining your extra-curricular and volunteer activities as well as work experiences.
•

10. • what formats are people using to present their portfolio?
• What can you do to communicate examples of your skills when the
example is either confidential or difficult to prove?

11. • Step 1: Collect
• The first step is to collect documents to place in your portfolio. As
you work through this course, you will be collecting items and placing
them in your portfolio.
• You will also be required to collect other pieces of evidence of
essential skills from outside of the course. Click here to see examples.
• • When you insert a document into your portfolio, you must
complete a section of the Portfolio Checkpoint Document each time.

12. Learning Skills
• Transcripts
• Awards
• Diplomas
• Essays, reports, research papers you wrote
• Digital picture of a completed project
• Valid Driver’s License
• Computer-generated documents you produced
• Certificates
• Evaluation from teacher, instructors
• Letters from past/present employers, teachers, coaches

13. Employability Skills
• Evaluation from employer, teacher or coach
• Letter of recommendation from teacher, coach, past or present employer
• Recognition Award (e.g. Attendance, Cooperation)
• Certificate of Achievement or Participation
• Attendance Record
• Report Card - learning skills section
• Proof of an activity that required use of personal management skill such as
punctuality, responsibility i.e.sports, babysitting
• Proof of volunteer work

14. Teamwork Skills
• Letters of recommendation from supervisors, employers, teachers, coaches
• Evaluation from employer, teacher
• Description of job requiring teamwork
• Description of an activity that required use of teamwork
• Awards, Certificates and/or letters of appreciation
• Training certificates
• Team photos or awards or certificates
• Report cards - learning skills (cooperation)
• Proof of volunteer work (community involvement)
•

15. Your portfolio must be organized so that you
can find things easily when needed. Here is a
suggested portfolio organizational format:
Title page
Résumé Section (including networking, résumé)
Portfolio Checkpoint Document
Skills Section
Careers Section (including careers of interest, education plan)

16. • Now that you have read the article on portfolios ("Remember Your Portfolio and Employers will Remember
You"), you know there are many different types of portfolios and many ways to create a portfolio. It is time
to think about a format for your portfolio.
• To help you, think about the type of person you are and the type of careers you are interested in.
• What is the best format for your portfolio? Will you go traditional and use a paper and binder format? Are
you a computer person who would like to use a webpage design to create a portfolio? Perhaps your career
interests would be better served if you went with a video, or a slideshow portfolio. There are many other
creative portfolio format options that haven't been mentioned. Can you think of any?
• In this discussion, you will be divided into groups
• Step One: Identify the type of person you are and the type of careers that interest you.
• Step Two: Respond to the postings of your two partners, suggesting a portfolio format that you feel would
best suit them based on their description of themselves and career interests.