My Career Portfolio

Watch this video to learn how to create your Career Action Plan using My Career Portfolio.

Watch this video to learn how to store your files and links in My Career Portfolio.

Watch this video to learn how to use the Career Practitioner dashboard in My Career Portfolio.

Rowena Archer, Careers and VET Coordinator of Braybrook College spoke about the school's success in driving the adoption of My Career Portfolio among year 7-12 students.    

Getting started

We decided to roll out My Career Portfolio one year level at a time.     

We started with all year 9 as we were able to link it to them doing their Morrisby and with undertaking the safe@work training in preparation for work experience.

We encouraged them to start their Career Action Plan. We advised it would help with their subject and course counselling, and that we would follow up to check how they were going.    

We also publicly praised the groups who completed their Career Action Plans.    

When did you do it?

At first, some students used it in their home group, but that wasn't always effective. If there were technology issues, often the homegroup teacher didn't necessarily have the skill (or ownership of the issue) to try to solve it.   

We found it was better to email the eduPass passwords to students and have them get started on their own. We worked with our IT Technicians to do this.   

Other strategies we used

We linked the use of My Career Portfolio to other activities the students were doing.    

For example, when year 9 did their Morrisby interviews, we reminded them to store their Morrisby profiles in My Career Portfolio. I also wrote up notes for our Morrisby consultant to remind students at their interview about uploading their profile to My Career Portfolio.    

For senior students, we talked about My Career Portfolio in the context of the open day/s at tertiary institutions. We reminded them that My Career Portfolio had lots of helpful links about future studies.    

For students doing special consideration applications via VTAC's Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS), we reminded them they would need a place to record what they've been doing. My Career Portfolio is a great place to store these items.    

We also used My Career Portfolio as a place to store documents such as the safe@work certificates when the students did them before work experience.   

Following up students

We had an education support staff member send a note to students who had not yet started their Career Action Plan. This also helped identify the ones who needed IT help, for example, with logging in.    

What would you say to another school planning to adopt My Career Portfolio?

It's a bit like doing Morrisby, in the first instance it took a lot of wearing out of shoe leather.     

Once students have used My Career Portfolio, the process becomes "something we do", and staff and students just say "okay, yep the time of year to do that".      

Daniel Kingham, Careers/VET/Work Experience Coordinator at Essendon Keilor College spoke about the school’s success in driving the adoption of My Career Portfolio among year 7-12 students, including during the learning from home period caused by COVID-19.   

Making the decision

After consultation with principals and coordinators, it was agreed we could implement My Career Portfolio during remote learning. We targeted year 10 and 11 students.    

It was agreed we could implement My Career Portfolio during remote learning.

Preparing the students using a Loom how-to video

We used the free, online tool called Loom to make a video about using My Career Portfolio to inform and prepare students.    

The video explained features of My Career Portfolio such as doing the Career Action Plan and uploading things like the Morrisby report to the My Files section.     

Watch the video made by Essendon Keilor College.     

We have Loom recordings for other purposes such as using VTAC course search, creating a resume, and more recently in preparing students for subject selection and VTAC applications/SEAS.    

When did we use My Career Portfolio?

We had all year 10 and 11 students undertaking My Career Portfolio on the same day during period 2 and mentor group (which is just over one hour in total).    

On the day, students had a Google Meet (like a Zoom meeting) with their normal period 2 teacher to help get them started. Any students who could not log in were instructed to email me for their password.    

Communicating the support material

We use Google Classroom to communicate various careers related information so that’s where we loaded the instructions and the Loom video.    

Already use eduPass logins

Because we access Google Classroom using eduPass, our students already knew their eduPass login and password. Therefore, we could easily log in to My Career Portfolio using eduPass.   

Rewards

Students who completed their Career Action Plan thoroughly and uploaded at least one relevant file to the My Files section of My Career Action received a REAL reward.    

Students uploaded files such as their Morrisby Report, safe@work modules and school reports.   

A REAL reward is a positive acknowledgement for any students displaying positive work behaviours.     

Student feedback

Students from Essendon Keilor College have mentioned finding the MCP platform easy to use, interactive and engaging. Keona from year 11 said:    

I was able to expand on areas of interest and look into careers in more depth. It helped me to start planning ahead for the future.

Max from year 11 said:    

I didn’t really have a clear idea about what I want to do when I leave school but it definitely helped me understand my strengths, weaknesses and interests more.

Caroline O’Donnell, Leading Teacher: Transitions and Pathways, at Horsham College spoke about their success in driving the adoption of My Career Portfolio by embedding its use in multiple structures and processes across the school.    

The role of school leadership and structure

We have a principal who supports careers as a key strategic cornerstone by having the careers team embedded in both the teaching and learning and student management groups.    

In addition, two members of the careers team hold leading teacher positions and are therefore part of the school leadership team.    

A principal who supports careers as a key strategic cornerstone by having the careers team embedded in teaching and learning, and student management.

Embedding it in the curriculum

Our principal has supported My Career Portfolio being embedded in the year 9 humanities curriculum, the year 10 careers curriculum, and has approved its rollout in homeroom classes in years 11 and 12. Because of this, we can pinpoint accountability for facilitating My Career Portfolio.    

To take one example, the humanities team have made My Career Portfolio one of their common assessment tasks early in the year for year 9 students. This means it’s managed at a classroom level and included in reports.    

It forms part of the careers investigation unit “Dream Job” and is revisited mid-year to coincide with the Western Victorian Careers Expo.    

Another example: year 10 careers classroom teachers have made My Career Portfolio an assessment task and bundled it in with the Expo visit and work experience placements.    

Close follow-up of teachers and students

We communicate deadlines for starting and completing My Career Portfolio.

We run reports and remind teachers by email who have forgotten. This is more critical for year 11 and 12 homeroom teachers.    

The leading teachers visit year 11 and 12 homerooms and verbally remind individual students.    

Career Action Plans a prerequisite for subject selection

All students in years 7-11 must have a Career Action Plan by August before the subject selection day for the following year.    

There is a field on their forms that must be signed by the relevant teacher to confirm they have a plan. We do not accept forms without this signature.    

Some students complete their Career Action Plans on the day of subject selection, and we provide iPads on the day for this.    

Including Career Action Plans as a PDP goal for teachers

Last year, teachers could choose a PDP goal about supporting all students to have Career Action Plans. While few chose this goal last year, communicating the choice gave Career Action Plans a level of legitimacy.    

Lucinda Huffer, Leading Teacher, at Wellington Secondary College spoke about the school's success in driving the adoption of My Career Portfolio among year 7-12 students.   

The decision to do it during remote learning

"We instructed staff not to set specific subject tasks for two periods that I chose randomly."

When COVID-19 happened, I asked students to do it during remote learning as I decided to stick with my initial calendar dates.

I asked for permission from the Heads of Junior and Senior schools and the Assistant Principal in charge of the curriculum to instruct staff not to set specific subject tasks for two periods that I chose randomly from the timetable.

I then sent out Compass newsfeeds with instructions to students and families from years 7-10. I also sent staff a brief statement to copy and paste into their Compass lesson plan for the nominated times.

Most students did it at the time assigned

"Most of them actually did it on the day they were assigned it."

I wasn't certain that they would do it on the day and at the time assigned, as remote learning does mean students are more autonomous. Assigning a time acknowledged the extra task we'd given them and the class teachers set My Career Portfolio as the work for the class.    

Interestingly, the Career Practitioner dashboard of My Career Portfolio shows me that most of them did it on the day they were assigned it.

In future years, I would follow a similar process so it's not so reliant on me to deliver it.    

I think it could be assigned as a task to be delivered in individual classes at a time nominated on the school calendar.     

And choosing to do it during a random mix of subject periods worked too. There wasn't the usual debate about the division of the curriculum pie.

Logging on to eduPass was a non-issue

One thing that helped this year, ironically, is that due to remote learning our students had to be using their school email address and eduPass to access their online classes. This meant the whole barrier around logging on to eduPass to access My Career Portfolio was a non-issue.

Sue Monahu, Careers Practitioner, at Bairnsdale Secondary College spoke about the school’s success in driving the adoption of My Career Portfolio.  

Reviewing the introduction of Morrisby yielded valuable insights

At the end of 2019, we sat down and reviewed the introduction of the My Career Insights (Morrisby Career Profile). This enabled us to:   

• gain a better understanding and knowledge of the DET/CEAV resources available
• understand what if any resources we needed to develop
• recognise the best time frame that allowed students to gain the maximum benefit from completing their Morrisby profiles and MCP.
• gauge the support we needed on board to successfully implement the programs, and how to manage them within the curriculum

• undertake a student survey seeking general feedback.

We also saw we would need a team.

Creating a team made the difference

“This team approach has enabled us to deliver the My Career Portfolio and My Career Insights programs.”

We created a three-person team consisting of a Careers Practitioner (Sue Monahu), Pastoral Co-ordinator/English & Humanities Teacher (Sarah Lamble) and ICT Team Manager (Zoe Cooper) was formed to implement the programs in 2020.   

Working in conjunction with members of our Whole School Organisation group (Eileen Loft and Matt Kell) this team approach has enabled us to effectively deliver the My Career Portfolio and My Career Insights programs.

Developing the rollout plan

“We developed a plan … which aimed to embed the two programs in the year 9 and 10 course and subject selection timeframe.”

Based on the student feedback it was evident the maximum benefit from the Morrisby Profile and My Career Portfolio occurred when incorporated into their course and subject selection.

We developed a plan for the 2020 roll-out of My Career Portfolio and Morrisby which aimed to embed the two programs in the year 9 and 10 courses and subject selection timeframe.    

At the same time, we were transitioning to a new timetabling/blocking system. This allowed us to redesign the documents used in the course and subject selection.

The subject selection booklet

Eileen Loft (Whole School Organisation) had the idea of a Subject Selection booklet covering years 9-12 which includes pages requiring students to information based on their Morrisby Profile and Career Action Plan before their counselling interviews   

This resulted in several positives:   

• highlighted to students the strength and importance we place on the Morrisby profile and My Career Portfolio
• allowed senior hub team members to familiarise themselves with the two programs during the course and subject counselling/interviews
• offered important "holistic" information about students to counselling team members
• provided a hard copy record and overview of the student's subject selections and attributes/aptitudes.

The importance of the IT team

“Our IT Team was important …”

Our IT Team was important. They checked the online links, created clear and concise instructions on using eduPass, updated user guides for staff, monitored the online platforms, checked in with classes assisting students to log on and re-set passwords and provided live feedback and support to students and staff.  

When we did it

Year 9 completed their Morrisby Profile in June then progressed onto competing their CAP before the end of term two.    

This provided students with considerable feedback, knowledge and insight into their strengths, aptitudes and abilities when researching future study pathways and selecting subjects in term three.     

Year 10 students commenced their Later Years Course and subject selection process in mid-June.   

In addition to a range of career development activities and presentations students were asked to review their 2019 Morrisby Profile, complete their Career Action Plan and include a summary in their Subject Selection booklet before their course and subject selection interviews.    

Overlaying both Year 9 and 10 programs created a busy term two, however, the benefit was evident in the understanding and self-knowledge students displayed when choosing their future subjects and pathways.    

Our focus now turns to Year 7 and 8 with the plan to complete Career Action Plans by the end of term, delivered again via English classes.

How we overcame one major challenge

“.. we had to develop curriculum, lesson plans and resources to enable our English teachers to deliver the programs”

A major challenge for us in 2020 was the cessation of our Pastoral program.    

It meant we had to develop curriculum, lesson plans and provide resources to enable our Year 9 and 10 English teachers to confidently deliver the programs within their classes.   

Our team member, Sarah Lamble, did this. As a Pastoral leader and an English teacher, she was able to liaise with colleagues, develop lesson plans and 'push' tasks via the curriculum and Compass.    

The lesson plans Sarah developed in addition to those provided by DET/CAEV were well structured, explicit, provided a "script" for teachers to use and were designed for remote delivery.    

The impact of COVID and remote learning worked in our favour as the lesson plans/delivery/Morrisby and MCP were all online.

The student feedback

“One surprising outcome … has been the increase in parental interest.”

Overall the student feedback has been extremely positive.    

For some students the experience of completing Morrisby/My Career Portfolio while remote learning has been problematic particularly about internet outages. However, the majority felt more at ease completing the Profile/My Career Portfolio remotely without the peer pressure of being in a classroom.    

One surprising outcome of completing it while remote learning has been the increase in parental interest.