Adopting Career Portfolios: Challenges for TVET Graduates and Employers in Indonesia’s IT Sector

The research aimed to explore how career portfolios are used by TVET graduates and industries, identify key factors inhibiting their adoption, and assess their potential to significantly improve employability in the digital era. This study used a qualitative design to critically examine the role of career portfolios in job recruitment within Indonesia’s dynamic informatics sector. The data were collected from five polytechnic institutions in East Java through an open-ended survey (n = 86) and semi-structured interviews (n = 15), and analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The study found a marked increase in the use of career portfolios among Diploma 4 graduates in informatics, especially in software development professions. However, persistent difficulties in documenting work evidence, the absence of standardized templates, and inconsistent portfolio content severely limited their effectiveness as recruitment tools. The focus on East Java informatics graduates limits the generalizability. Future research could expand to other regions, adopt mixed-methods approaches, and use longitudinal designs to capture evolving portfolio practices. Higher education can embed portfolio literacy in curricula, industries can co-design standardized templates, and policymakers can integrate portfolios into national TVET strategies. Strengthening portfolio adoption can effectively improve graduate absorption into industries, reduce skill mismatches, and support a more adaptable workforce. This study contributes new insights into the underexplored role of career portfolios in Indonesia, positioning them not only as recruitment tools but as strategic instruments for skills validation, professional identity, and lifelong learning.