Dawn - Adult Education
Challenge method: portfolio
It was an exciting, fun, affirming and inspirational process. Developing my portfolio allowed me to find innovative ways to illustrate my achievements and it was also a creative means of self-expression. I will continue to develop my portfolio to document what I have done, what I am doing as it represents my personal growth.
The portfolio has been instrumental to my career. I am now able to share my portfolio when appropriate during a performance review. It has provided me with the opportunity to build a record that supplements my résumé and demonstrates to my current employer, in a concrete way what my skills and abilities are.
I use my portfolio as a highly visual tool to showcase my skills, abilities and achievements during an interview with prospective employers. It is literally a "portable and purposeful collection" which fits in nicely with the new age concept of transferable skills and adaptability that employers are looking for today. Unlike my résumé, which simply records what I have done, my portfolio helps me tell an employer what I can do now and it backs up what I am saying with solid evidence to support my accomplishment statements.
My portfolio is also an excellent progressive tool for my career development. It is allowing me to demonstrate my non-formal learning experiences as a learning assessment instrument so that I can gain access to PLAR credits, which will help me complete a degree and move towards my ultimate goal of achieving a master’s degree in an expedited and timely fashion.
The saying, “You’ve come a long way,” comes to mind. As a committed lifelong learner this meaningful opportunity helped me to collect and reflect on my experiences. I would recommend it because the portfolio experience has been very rewarding for me, both professionally and personally.