Transition portfolios are a relatively new tool designed for Indiana’s high school students and transition teachers that just may help you, a community employment provider, or Pre-Employment Transition Services provider, as you work with young adults with disabilities.
Every incoming freshman will now complete a transition portfolio over their four years of high school. All Indiana high school students are required to have portfolios that contain records of achievement, letters of recommendation, notes about job experiences, or other documentation related to employment goals, skills, or experiences.
Indiana high school students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) must also have records or documentation in their portfolios that document general student information, learning characteristics, and academic skills. The portfolio can also allow young 
adults who are non-verbal or those who may not feel comfortable talking about themselves to share their experiences and achievements in a more comfortable, more effective way. Young adults can include video demonstrations of their work; pictures of final products; or letters of recommendation by school, community, or work personnel – anything that helps a potential employer get to know that person and their skills and talents.
Working with their students and case conference teams, teachers can create and store transition portfolios in different formats, which must be approved by the Indiana Department of Education. The two most common portfolio formats are Indiana Career Explorer and Google Sites. These are free to both the school and to the student. Every Indiana public high school selected a format to create these portfolios, so they are consistent across the board for all students.
Here’s the great part: Students “own” their portfolios and can share their portfolio link with potential employers, support staff, career training centers, postsecondary education advisors, and YOU.
Putting the SPIN in Portfolios
Teachers, Pre-ETS providers, and employment professionals can all use and add to a student’s transition portfolio at the same time. The school is ultimately responsible for the creation of the portfolio, but Pre-ETS staff, working with the student in school, can help with submitting documents to show strengths, preferences, interests, and needs. (In the world of transition, we refer to that as SPIN.)
Working with the Teacher of Record for the student, the Pre-ETS team can submit items into the portfolio with the username and password. They can help develop artifacts (documents of support for that student) as they work with the student and observe, coach, or train them in their program.
There are four components of the transition portfolio:
- Student Information,
- Student Learning Characteristics,
- Academic Skills, and
- Employability Skills
Resumes, cover letters, career assessments, interest inventories, research on employment topics, research on academic studies to continue for postsecondary education, worksite observations, photos, videos of work in progress or end projects, letters of recommendation—these can all be used as artifacts in the transition portfolio.
Indiana Career Explorer has an additional advantage in that it includes built-in assessments to show interest inventories of career exploration, skill confidence, and workplace values to help the student define their interests and explore related jobs and careers.
Grade-appropriate checklists of things to do or to try within a timeline can be created within the portfolio itself or by using outside resources. If the student is interested in postsecondary education, the assessment will share areas of study and degree requirements for a particular field or career path, so they know what course of study may be necessary for that type of work.
The portfolio can also assist young adults who are non-verbal or those who may not feel comfortable talking about themselves to share their experiences and achievements in a more comfortable, more effective way. Young adults can even include video demonstrations of their work, pictures of final products, letters of recommendation–anything that helps a potential employer get to know that person and their skills and talents.
Keeping the Portfolio a Living Document
The transition portfolio is a helpful planning tool to be used throughout high school, but it’s also valuable after the student graduates or leaves the school. The username and password are the student’s and they can continue to access the portfolio at any time. They can upload documents or edit things to ensure they are current and reflective of the student. After all, how many times did you change your major or career goals when you were an adolescent or young adult?
The completed portfolio will contain a wealth of information, including contact information, likes, dislikes, preferences, needs, and so much more. Via a link, students can share their portfolios with their VR counselors, waiver case managers, residential providers, and employment specialists or consultants. What might have taken a VR counselor or intake specialist weeks, months, or even years to learn might now be available with a link and a mouse click when a young adult shares their portfolio.
Working with their provider, students can continue to update and edit the portfolio. Editing a resume, cover letter, preferences of work, and adding a reference can all be accomplished right there in the portfolio and can give a potential employer even more to review.
Resources:
- Transition Portfolio Trainings for Indiana Transition Educators—archived webinars of five modules developed for Indiana teachers.
To create a transition portfolio for a job seeker who has already exited high school, here are the links to help you get started.