What is a Portfolio?

The portfolio is essentially a collection of evidence of your learning achieved during the programme. The term comes from fine art where students collect samples of their work. Your portfolio will demonstrate your growth as a midwife and will provide evidence of your repertoire of skills, knowledge, and understanding by the end of the programme.

Why Create a Portfolio?

A portfolio includes a variety of evidence of achievement and is developed over a period of time; this means that it can offer greater insight into:

1. Personal and professional growth over a period of time
2. The depth and breadth of achievement
3. Your cumulative and holistic achievement.

Most other forms of assessment focus on particular knowledge, skills and attitudes in isolation at a particular moment of time: a portfolio offers a much richer picture of what a person is capable of. Evidence captured in a portfolio can be particularly useful in providing evidence of your competence.

Although your portfolio is a working document, it will not contain every piece of paper about your achievements, learning and development experiences. You will need to select carefully what is most significant. In this programme we suggest that you include items from the list in the table below.