How do ePortfolios contribute to the identity-construction process? How do ePortfolios support the acquisition of 21st-century skills? How do ePortfolios support lifelong learning, orientation, and employability? How can we make ePortfolios fully interoperable? These questions are central at ePIC 2012.

Bringing together policy makers, researchers, academics, teachers, trainers, human-resource managers, and technologists, ePIC 2012 enables in-depth and broad exploration and interaction - and generates results in real outcomes. Past events have resulted in the creation of national and international networks, contribution to policies, contribution to standardisation bodies, establishment of partnerships with other communities in the field of digital identity and human resource standards, transnational projects, and numerous publications.

The worldwide emergence of ePortfolios is an indicator of the need to review our approach to education and lifelong learning, at the same time demonstrating that it is possible to make learning and assessment more authentic and integrated. ePortfolios are at the source of a new generation of tools dedicated to valuing and celebrating the achievements of the individual, from nursery school to lifelong and life-wide learning. It is also a technology reinforcing the link between individual, organizational, and community learning.

For the third year, the international ePortfolio & Identity conference will have ePortfolios in healthcare as a major theme. Twenty abstracts and the five best papers of this track will be published in the International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS).