An E-portfolio is a term used mainly in e-learning to signify an electronic portfolio of training followed, certifications, skill and knowledge acquired over time that a student collects through their live long learning journey and which can use as proof of their previous training and learning history.
The principle of the e-portfolio is that it is owned and managed by the student, ands not by a training organisation and that it is transportable across platforms, meaning it is not propriety of a particular learning management system or equivalent platform.
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For the non-technical [like me!] it is not much more than either a secured digital file that can be read and updated by the user through a learning management system, or an online service in which the individual can export their training records to.
The interest of considering e-portfolios in the future is that as we can see there are a number of drivers that would make this a valuable incentive for quality, competence and training.
The drivers are:
- Formalised competence verification
- Staff mobility
- Constantly evolving performance needs [in multiple terms such as technology and procedures]
- The individual’s career progression
Competence verification:
In many ATM domains, professionals are required to show that they have followed training and passed exams. Organising the outcomes on a cross platform e-portfolio and giving the responsibility of maintenance of this e-portfolio to the individual can make things more transparent and make their management by the regulatory authorities an easier process.
Staff mobility:
Within the European Union, it is the right of each citizen* to be mobile and to be eligible to contract work anywhere in one of the EU’s Member States. The European Commission is pushing for this mobility to become more transparent and more available within the air traffic management industry.
Staff will want to be able to show to prospective employers anywhere in the world the training they have done and the exams they have passed. Most of this is done through paper certifications. For a lot of training done through e-learning and for many internal refresher trainings, this proof is not available. An e-portfolio could cater for this lack and could be a file that an individual could hand in to an organisation’s HR department in a similar way to today’s CV [and to complement it]
Constantly evolving performance needs:
Constant evolving needs, translates to regular training to update knowledge and skill. The multiplication of training means the multiplication of results and training records. Keeping up with evolving needs through training is an asset for an individual, and awn employer would rather employ an individual who can show that they have, through training, kept abreast of changes than one who cannot
The e-portfolio could contain these training history records and would benefit the employer and the employee alike.
The individual’s career progression:
The ATM industry offers real career opportunities and people joining as trainee controllers evolve over time to become trainers, supervisors, managers, safety investigators, functional system designers, procedural experts, etc. etc.
The training they receive over time is a wealth of knowledge and skill that these persons have gathered. The training history is partly translated into printed certificates and into training records the employer or the training organisation providing the training might want to keep [and which is occasionally purposely deleted for privacy reasons]
The e-portfolio would be a way to entrust the individual to decide which training history they want to maintain and show.
Conclusion:
We are in early days of e-portfolios, but nevertheless it is a good time to start considering these as there are enough drivers that confirm the need.
For e-portfolios to be successful they need to be portable and dynamic, easy to use and accessible, secure but available.
An ATM e-portfolio, recognised and portable to organisations working in our domain could be an innovatory step in the good direction!
* Unfortunately, some exceptions apply
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