Portrait of a Graduate Framework: Key Competencies for Real-World Success
Ensure your students graduate with the skills needed to be successful in their academics, careers, and life. Learn about Portrait of a Graduate key competencies, implementation, and more!
Portrait of a Graduate Table of Contents
Defining the Portrait of a Graduate Success Framework
A Portrait of a Graduate serves as a visionary blueprint detailing the essential skills and attributes students should acquire during their educational journey. This framework typically emphasizes competencies that align with education standards, current workforce demands, and community values.
Portrait of a Graduate is just one name of a Graduate Success Framework. Graduate Success Frameworks are also known as a Vision of a Learner, Profile of a Future-Ready Student, or Graduate Competency Framework. Regardless of the name, these models help schools move beyond traditional metrics of success and foster holistic student development.
Advantages of Implementing a Graduate Success Framework for Students + Wider School Community
Adopting a Graduate Success Framework like a Portrait of a Graduate offers numerous benefits:
For Schools and Educators:
- Unifies vision and language: Creates a shared understanding among educators, students, and the community about desired student outcomes, fostering cohesive educational strategies.
- Strengthens strategic educational planning: Guides curriculum development and instructional methods to align with the competencies outlined in the Graduate Profile.
- Encourages innovation: Inspires schools to adopt new teaching strategies, including project-based and experiential learning.
- Facilitates professional development: Guides teacher training to focus on skills that align with the graduate profile.
- Supports instructional alignment: Helps educators tailor teaching methods and curriculum to develop key competencies.
For Students:
- Fosters holistic development: Encourages growth in critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and adaptability.
- Enhances student future-readiness: Aligns educational goals with real-world demands, ensuring students are well-equipped for future success within higher education and/and careers.
- Promotes lifelong learning: Helps students build skills that go beyond academics, preparing them for personal and professional growth.
- Boosts engagement and motivation: Provides a clear sense of purpose and relevance in education, helping students see the connection between school and their future.
For Communities and Employers:
- Strengthens workforce readiness: Aligns graduate skills with local and global workforce needs, ensuring students are career-ready.
- Builds stronger school-community connections: Encourages partnerships between schools, businesses, and community organizations to support student development.
- Promotes civic engagement: Encourages students to be active, responsible members of their communities.
Illustrative Example of a Portrait of a Graduate Profile
Consider the approach taken by North Carolina, which has identified six pivotal "durable skills" for its students: adaptability, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, empathy, and a learner's mindset. This comprehensive framework ensures that graduates are not only academically proficient but also equipped with essential life skills.
View North Carolina’s Portrait of a Graduate.
Did you know? Wayfinder has a tool to help you align and track your Portrait of a Graduate progress, and includes content to help your students meet their goals. Discover Wayfinder’s Portrait of a Graduate tool here.
Essential Competencies to Incorporate in a Portrait of a Graduate
When developing a Graduate Success Framework, like a Portrait of a Graduate, it's crucial to focus on core competencies that reflect both academic and interpersonal growth. Key areas include:
- Adaptability: Building resilience and flexibility to navigate change, embrace challenges, and succeed in evolving environments.
- Collaboration: Strengthening teamwork, active listening, and problem-solving skills to achieve shared goals effectively.
- Communication: Enhancing the ability to express ideas clearly, confidently, and appropriately across various platforms and audiences.
- Critical thinking: Developing analytical reasoning, creativity, and problem-solving skills to address complex challenges.
- Empathy: Fostering an awareness of diverse perspectives, promoting inclusivity, and strengthening meaningful connections.
- Learner’s mindset: Encouraging curiosity, self-motivation, and a commitment to continuous learning and personal growth.
- Purpose: Helping students develop a clear sense of direction by identifying strengths, setting meaningful goals, and making informed decisions that contribute to their communities and future careers.
Steps to Develop and Implement a Graduate Profile
Creating an effective Graduate Success Framework, like a Portrait of a Graduate, involves six key steps:
- Stakeholder engagement: Collaborate with educators, students, parents, and community members to gather diverse insights and build consensus.
- Competency identification: Identify the skills and attributes that are essential for student success in today’s dynamic educational landscape.
- Visual design: Create an accessible and engaging representation of the Graduate Success Framework that serves as a continuous reference point for all stakeholders.
- Curriculum alignment: Ensure educational programs are adjusted to foster the development of the identified competencies effectively.
- Professional development: Offer targeted training for educators to seamlessly integrate the Graduate Profile into their teaching practices.
- Continuous assessment: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the Graduate Success Framework, making necessary adjustments to ensure its ongoing relevance and impact.
Evaluating the Impact
To measure the success of the Graduate Profile, consider the following approaches:
- Student feedback: Collect insights from students on how effectively the competencies prepare them for real-world applications and challenges.
- Performance metrics: Analyze data on student achievements in academics and extracurricular activities to evaluate growth in targeted competencies.
- Community input: Collaborate with local businesses and organizations to assess the effectiveness of the Graduate Success Framework in aligning with workforce expectations.
Explore Supporting Tools and Resources
Discover a range of educational tools and resources designed to support the development and implementation of a Portrait of a Graduate, and other Graduate Success Frameworks, including:
- In-app tools to measure Portrait of a Graduate success: Learn how you can align, engage, monitor, and respond to your Graduate Success Framework.
- Implementation guide: A comprehensive resource outlining steps and strategies for successfully implementing a Graduate Success Framework in your school.
- White paper: Learn more about future-ready skills, and bridging durable skills and career success from top companies and industry leaders.
- Future of Jobs information guide: Read our Preparing Students for the Future of Jobs Info Guide to learn about workforce trends and top workforce skills for future-ready grads
- Blogs + articles on future-ready skills.
Looking for more resources? See all Portrait of a Graduate resources here.