As delivered to the iMoot 2011 virtual conference.

1. Career Portfolio
Manitoba
Mahara ePortfolio
for Employability
iMoot
May 2011
Don Presant

2. Manitoba,Canada
Small province in a small country
• Challenging geography
– 650,000 sq km (UK x 2)
• Diverse demographics
– 1.18 m (712K in Winnipeg)
– Aboriginals, immigrants
• Diverse economy
• Federal political structure
• “Canada’s social science laboratory”
• A bit damp...

3. Why ePortfolio for employability?
An increasingly digital life...
• Google & the Internet
• Web 2.0 & social software
– Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn...
• Job boards & electronic recruitment
– Monster, Workopolis, Job Bank
• Digital identity
• Authentic evidence

4. Human Capital Technology
• eSourcing/eRecruitment tools
– Résumé Importing/Exporting/Searching
– Assessments & Applicant Screening
– Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
• Onboarding (orientation) tools
• Performance/Talent Management Systems
• Human Resource Management Systems
(HRMS/HRIS)
Adapted from http://www.recruitersnetwork.com/software/index.htm

5. Human Capital Management
A competitive marketplace

6. eSourcing
Mining the Internet

7. Regional solutions
Inspiration for Manitoba

8. Career Portfolio Manitoba
Current stakeholders: WEM & WPLAR
• Nonprofit partnerships of Government,
Business and Labour
• WEM: workplace education in Essential
Skills
• WPLAR: workplace Recognition of Prior
Learning
wem.mb.ca
wplar.ca

9. Canada’s Essential Skills
Contextualized by workplace occupation…
1. Reading text
2. Document use
3. Writing
4. Numeracy
5. Computer skills
6. Oral communication
7. Thinking skills
– Problem Solving, Decision Making, Critical
Thinking, Job Task Planning and Organizing,
Significant Use of Memory, Finding
Information
8. Working with others
9. Continuous learning

10. 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

11. Building your portfolio
- one step at a time

12. The “e” factor
Advantages 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

13. Vision for Career Portfolio Manitoba
Career 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

14. Choosing the Platform
New Zealand – Mahara
• FOSS project - Massey University
– Funded by NZ government, later Carnegie Mellon
– Lifelong learning & social networking environment
• Learner owned, multiple views
• LEAP2A exportability
• Moodle integration

15. Choosing the platform
The “Mahoodle” ecosystem
INSTRUCTOR LED
Archiving
Presenting
USER DRIVEN
Mahara tools:
Blog, forum, views Collect, Select, Reflect…
Human capital Networks Artefacts, commentary, dialogue
development Peers, mentors
Employability Other Web 2.0 tools:
Skills transfer
KSA asset building
Lifelong learning

16. Essential Skills ePortfolio
Program overview
• Adapt the paper curriculum
• Leverage the “e” factor
• Embed authentic ICT skills
– Useful software applications
– Accessible multimedia hardware
• Provide ongoing support

17. Implementation
Online tour (careerportfolio.mb.ca)

18. Implementation
Job match summary

19. Early steps
• Pilot
– Learners
– “Train the trainer”
• Rework curriculum

20. Current state
Lessons learned and learning
• Make it more usable
– Shorten curriculum, customize delivery
• Full vs. accelerated versions
– Improve worksheet methodology
– Stream learners
• Computer skills gap training
– Add more exemplars
• Caucasian, Aboriginal...
– Document more fully
• Manual, more/updated videos

21. Next steps
• Explore more ways to extend Mahara
– Framework for Moodle 2.0, LinkedIn, GoogleApps
– But keep it accessible...
• Polish the business plan
– Scope provincewide user support needs – other data?
• Build partnerships

22. Potential partners
• Other non-profits
• Sector Councils
• Post secondary institutions
• Provincial government departments
• Federal departments/agencies
• Individual employers

23. Community of communities
“Small pieces, loosely joined”
Government Student
Information Records
Portals
Employer HR
eGovernment Management
Single Window Systems
Service
Online Localized
Credential
Mahoodle
Labour Market
Verification Hub Information
Web 2.0
YouTube Job Boards,
LinkedIn Recruitment
Twitter… Sites
Online Personal
Mentoring Networks,
Services Communities

24. Further reading
• Presentations about Career Portfolio Manitoba
– http://bit.ly/CPMBpresentations
• MyPortfolio http://myportfolio.ac.nz/
– Report: http://bit.ly/g8JLLQ
• MOSEP http://www.mosep.org/
– Toolbox (curr/report): http://bit.ly/MOSEP_toolbox
• EIfEL - www.epforum.eu/
• ePortfolio Community of Practice (AUS)
– http://epcop.net.au

25. Useful links
• Career Portfolio Manitoba
– http://careerportfolio.mb.ca
– http://bit.ly/eP_example
• 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

26. Don Presant
don@learningagents.ca
Twitter: donpresant
Skype: dpresant