In this talk, Dr Nicola Aberdine, Senior Lecturer in Bioscience and Chemistry at Sheffield Hallam University, shares how portfolio pages were integrated into PebblePad workbooks to support reflection, assessment, and evidencing clinical competencies within a healthcare degree apprenticeship.
Drawing on nearly a decade of experience delivering an applied apprenticeship (est. 2017), Nicola explains how the team redesigned their approach to managing large volumes of highly visual clinical evidence collected by cardiovascular and respiratory physiology apprentices working full-time in the NHS.
The session explores:
- How worksheets were used as structured guidance pages for students, supervisors, and academics
- Why responsibility for presentation was shifted to students using portfolio pages
- How this approach reduced assessor workload while improving clarity and engagement
- The benefits of visual evidence being presented holistically rather than as hundreds of individual uploads
- How portfolios supported reflection, professional development, and endpoint assessment
- The move from pass/fail competency checks to graded assessments based on quality of reflection and evidence Nicola also reflects on the impact this design has had on students, supervisors, and assessors — including improved professional discussions at endpoint assessment and consistently strong outcomes, with over 80% of apprentices achieving distinction.
This session will be especially valuable for:
- Degree apprenticeship providers
- Health and clinical education teams
- PebblePad users designing portfolios or workbooks
- Anyone managing complex, workplace-based assessment and reflection