FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid

Are you planning on attending a post-secondary institution?  You may be required to complete FAFSA.

The 2021-22 FAFSA is available! Here are a few tips!

This year students can access the FAFSA by visiting FAFSA.gov or by using the myStudentAid mobile app. The FAFSA should be completed as soon as possible after Oct. 1 to ensure priority consideration for some types of financial aid. It’s best to gather all necessary materials before starting the FAFSA. Since the 2021-22 FAFSA allows applicants to use 2019 tax information, families can use their 2019 return to complete the application right away! There’s no need to wait.

To complete and submit the FAFSA online, students and one of their parents will each need to create an FSA ID (Federal Student Aid ID) at FSAID.ed.gov. This username/password serves as an electronic signature on the FAFSA and certain student loan applications, and allows them to access other federal student aid websites. It’s beneficial for families to create their FSA IDs before starting the FAFSA to speed up the application process. Visit UCanGo2.org to download an FSA ID Worksheet (in English and Spanish) to keep track of your information.

If you have questions, visit with Mrs. Williams the NWTC Financial Aid Director.

ACT WorkKeys Certificate Levels and Job Profiles Database

Certification Levels

Individuals can earn four levels of certifications by taking the three WorkKeys® assessments.

• Bronze Level – Signifies an individual has scored at least a Level 3 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 16% of the jobs in the WorkKeys Job Pro database.
• Silver Level – Signifies an individual has scored at least a Level 4 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 67% of the jobs on the WorkKeys Job Pro database.
• Gold Level – Signifies an individual has scored at least a Level 5 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 93% of the jobs on the WorkKeys Job Pro database.
• Platinum Level – Signifies an individual has scored at least a Level 6 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 99% of the jobs on the WorkKeys Job Pro database.

ACT Job Profiles

WorkKeys assessments measure real-world skills that employers believe are critical to job success.

To find out more about specific careers and their skills requirements, check out the ACT job profiles database

What is VirtualJobShadow.com?

VirtualJobShadow.com offers engaging career exploration resources and tools all on one user-friendly website. We will be utilizing a website named VirtualJobShadow.com this year in addition to and/or partial replacement of OKCareerGuide.com to explore careers.  To find information regarding how to log in to your account and what activities to complete, visit the http://nwtech.edu/alvacc/virtualjobshadow-com/ page of the Career Center website (Under Enhancement Menu).

Assessments

Interest assessments provide the user with more insight into themselves and help to guide the career exploration process. Obtain these results first and then explore the possibilities!

Once logged in on VirtualJobShadow.com, users can access Assessments under the Tools heading, found in the black navigation bar at the top right side of the screen. The Assessments section features four assessments designed to help guide career exploration. The three assessment used in Career Center are:

• Career Clusters Interest Survey (CCIS) matches users’ interests to their top career clusters, based on activities they most enjoy.
• O*Net Interest Profiler (O*Net IP) helps users discover their interests and learn how they relate to future career choices.
• O*Net Work Importance Locator (O*Net WIL) helps users identify their work values and decide what is important to them in a job.

Each assessment has detailed instructions and offers the ability to save the user’s progress if they do not finish in one sitting. Once an assessment has been completed and submitted, clicking on the results hyperlink in blue will take the user to the matching careers in Career Central.

Career Central

Start exploring specific careers by choosing from a range of industries and fields, using the filter tabs or search box to narrow down your career search.  Career Central allows users to find an extensive collection of careers and job shadowing videos, which include closed captioning and transcripts in both English and Spanish.

Users can begin exploring career profiles, including the Q&A segments that accompany the main video. After watching each video, they may also read through the Career Description, Required Education, Earnings, and Future Outlook information on the left-hand side of the profile screen. Users may take Pop Quizzes and write Career Journals, which are located just above the video.

Login Instructions

Staff and students of the Northwest Tech Campus – Alva may access their user accounts at https://www.virtualjobshadow.com/login/AC5760/users/?.

Students will use the same username and password as used for WorkKeys assessments  (except for a few students). Your password will be a six digit number representing your birthdate such as 020503 if you were born on February 5, 2003.

If you need assistance with your username and password, please let Mrs. Frascht know.  Usernames and passwords should be recorded in the Passwords Google Sheet I have provided in the Google Drive folder I have Shared with you for the Career Center.

VirtualJobShadow.com Assignment 1

I have created your first VirtualJobShadow.com assignment.  You will find it under the Assignments section.  Please get started on this assignment today.