I was privileged to be asked by Iwi Ugiagbe-Green to speak at an institution where I spent 5 great years as a student and then employee. The audience was made up of current students and graduate trainees who either have an e-portfolio or are giving it some serious consideration.

Iwi is running a project called Pebble-pad PDA use Placement Pilot Scheme (PUPPS) which records the experiences of people using Pepplepad software. I’ve played around with Pebblepad before and it is a good piece of kit that enables you to make an e-portfolio quickly and easily. However, it does all this behind a closed (invitation only) door and lacks a vanity URL facility. So whilst, Peppblepad is a great tool for educators to record thoughts and reflect, it could be enhanced to improve its use as an employability tool.

Anyone who knows me well, will vouch that I’m fascinated by recording achievement and, generally, I feel universities should do more to encourage students to record their work and experiences – and help them to put this online. I’m adamant that this is the way forward and if done well, will significantly boost a graduate’s employability prospects. I was delighted to hear what Iwi was up to and she presented her e-portfolios which she has used for professional development.

As I mentioned in the presentation, graduates are forever being told ‘it’s a tough world out there’ and ‘you need to stand out from the crowd’, but are given very little specific guidance. So I included a fantastic example, by Laura Tosney who produced a video application for a job at 33 Digital – so good in fact, I’ve embedded it into this post. She knows how to stand out from the crowd – and she got the job.

It was also great to have a chat with Iwi and discuss where she sees e-portfolios being utilised at Leeds Met, as well as the other issues, such as personal privacy, client confidentiality and how much information do people really want to give away online.

I would argue that the horse has already bolted for the Y Generation and we all have extensive digital footprints. Instead, we should look to enhance not minimise our digital footprint with some Personal SEO techniques.

Below is a copy of the presentation – if you attended the session I would delighted to hear your feedback or any questions you may have. You can find out more of my thoughts and presentations on e-portfolios here.

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It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and both Charlotte Britton and Stephen Waddington have penned thoughtful blogs on the session.

Charlotte Britton who is a Director at Republic of Yorkshire and Chair of Yorkshire and Humber Young Directors Forum at Institute of Directors will also be giving her views as an employer.

Nick Halafihi a Leeds Met Lecturer and some of his Carnegie Sport & Education students will provide a case study on how first year students are utilising their e-portfolio.

A Twitter feed has been created for the event #LeedsMetLL – so please feel free to follow the event, comment , ask questions and leave feedback. We’ll do our best to reply to everyone.

Here is a copy of the presentation  – if you have any questions, please do get in touch.