WOIS is continually enhancing our system to meet the needs of schools, colleges, agencies and businesses in Washington.  You ask, and we work hard to deliver.

So What's New for this week?  Pathways and Reality Check!

Pathway descriptions and occupations are now found in each of the WOIS Cluster descriptions.  Now when you go to Occupations by Cluster, then choose a Cluster to explore, you will see each of the Pathways found in the cluster with a brief description of the Pathway, and a list of occupations that relate to that Pathway.

Thank you to Vancouver School District for this request.

The other exciting feature added this week, Reality Check, is a tool that allows a person to decide how much money they will need to live independently, and how well the salaries for their selected careers will meet their expense requirements.  Reality Check offers several different ways to relate a monthly budget to career choices.  Reality Check is found both in the Assessment section of the WOIS website, and the Occupation section.

Enjoy these new features, and watch for more announcements in the weeks to come.  If you want a hint of the new features that will be added soon, send an email to tami@wois.org.

WOIS/The Career Information System is Washington State's most comprehensive career and educational planning resource and is used in over 900 sites in the state of Washington.  WOIS has provided career assessment tools, detailed information about occupations, educational programs, and postsecondary institutions, along with supporting activities and resources, for more than 35 years.  WOIS provides complete, accurate and up-to-date information for Washington State and NOW also provides national wage, outlook, and college information.  As a non-profit organization, our goal is to provide these resources, and related training and technical support, at the lowest cost possible, to the institutions and organizations in Washington State. 

Now your students/clients can enter their career research directly into the WOIS Portfolio! 

If you have used the "Research a Career" worksheet, found in the activities section of the WOIS website, and had students/clients upload the worksheet to their portfolio in the past, now they can enter their responses to the career research questions directly in the Career Research section of the WOIS Portfolio! 

Your students/clients simply log into their Portfolio, click on Career Research, then click on Add New Career Research.

By entering this directly in the portfolio, it's easy for you or the student/client to view and/or print reports on the research. 

Thank you to Kari Farnsworth at Shadle Park High School for this fantastic idea!

We are working on more great ideas from WOIS users.  Stay tuned!

If you have questions about this, or any other WOIS function, call us at 1-800-700-WOIS or email tami@wois.org.

WOIS is a non-profit organization that provides the most comprehensive career and educational planning tools available in Washington.  WOIS is used in nearly 1,000 sites in Washington State, including more than 260 public high schools, more than 100 middle schools and junior highs, and many agencies, libraries and private businesses.

Stated by a workshop participant on 10/1/2009 -- "Great discussion!  Great strategies for implementation and great handouts to help us succeed at implementation!  This was a fantastic workshop!"

Discover how to create schools, advisories, and classrooms where students are engaged in learning by attending Creating Schools with Heart and Soul (where students want to be).

Presented by Dr. Cal Crow, from the Center for Learning Connections, you will learn strategies for getting to the heart and soul of the student.  Discussion and activities center around providing relevance to learning, creating student-centered schools, and building resiliency and self-efficacy in all of your students.

Join us on November 17 at South Seattle Community College or December 1 at Columbia Basin College. 

Workshop cost is $149 and 5.5 clock hours are provided.

Receive more information and register today!

Do you have customized links in your WOIS portfolio system?  If so, there is a new way to organize those links!  You can now create headings for groups of links (for example College Planning Links, or Financial Aid Links) and organize the appropriate links under each special heading.   Headings can also be added to your Culminating Project links in the Culminating Project section.

AND you can choose whether you want your links to continue at the top of the student Portfolio Main Menu, OR if you want your links to be in a separate box on the right side of the Portfolio Main Menu.

Try it -- you will love it!  If you look at the options (click on Links in your Portfolio Administration), read the instructions, and still need more help, call us at 1-800-700-WOIS.

We've also added a column on the Detail View Report in the Portfolio Administration that allows you to see the total number of volunteer hours each student has added to the Work and Community Experience section of their Portfolio.  If your school requires that students have a certain number of hours -- this allows you to see at a glance if the students are reaching their required community service hours.

Thank you to Puyallup School District and South Bend School District for these great ideas!

Hold on to your hats!  There's more to come in the next few months!

Stated by a workshop participant on 10/1/2009 -- "Great discussion!  Great strategies for implementation and great handouts to help us succeed at implementation!  This was a fantastic workshop!"

If you want to discover how to create schools and classrooms where students are engaged in learning, you need to attend this workshop. 

Presented by Dr. Cal Crow, from the Center for Learning Connections, you will learn strategies for getting to the heart and soul of the student.  Discussion and activities will center around providing relevance to learning, creating student-centered schools, and building resiliency and self-efficacy in all of your students.

Two more dates and locations are set up for 2009.  November 17 at South Seattle Community College and December 1 at Columbia Basin College.

Receive more information and register today!

The Transitions, Learning and Work conference is scheduled for February 1, 2010.  Join us for an exciting program, with Keynote Speaker Dr. Kenford Nedd and Luncheon Speaker, Dr. Cal Crow.

Agenda and Registration can be found here.

We hope you had a wonderful summer and are refreshed and ready for the new school year!  The WOIS website is ready for you, with the updated release up and running as of yesterday.

Many enhancements have been added to WOIS this year.  The most notable is the ability to get National College information for every WOIS educational program and our link with StudentEdge for PSAT, SAT, ACT, AP, and ASVAB practice tests -- and more.  These two enhancements are included in the license for all full WOIS system subscribers.  Other enhancements have been made to the WOIS portfolio system, and online administrative tutorials are now available. 

New site keys for the year have been assigned.  If you haven't seen yours (most were sent via snail mail), send email to tami@wois.org or call WOIS at 1-800-700-WOIS. 

FREE Basic WOIS training has been set up so far in Pasco, Spokane and Olympia.  Register for training here.  Registration for Creating Schools with Heart and Soul and Dependable Strengths for Educators workshops can also be found at this link.  Watch the WOIS website for more training opportunities throughout the fall.

WOIS and The Center for Learning Connections have teamed up to provide the Transitions, Learning and Work conference on February 1, 2010.  This was formerly the Worforce conference.  Find more information and register at the Transitions, Learning and Work website.

WOIS customers can also take advantage of training at the comfort of their own computer.  WOIS is offering a Basic Training Webinar on September 24.  More webinars for basic and advanced training will be scheduled throughout the year.   Register here.

If you haven't renewed, you no longer have access to WOIS.  Please contact the WOIS office as soon as possible to make sure WOIS is up and running when you are ready to help your students and clients make solid, well-informed career and educational plans.  Remember, WOIS is the ONLY system that provides complete and accurate information for EVERYONE, whether they want to go directly into the workforce, enter into a short- or long-term training program, or plan to pursue a Ph.D.  As we enter our 36th year of service to Washington State citizens, we thank all of our customers for your continued support.

Visit WOIS on Facebook for current trends and information about careers and education.  Enter into our Discussions, or start one of your own.  Become a member of the WOIS Facebook network to stay connected!

You can link to WOIS on Facebook from the WOIS homepage at www.wois.org.  The Facebook link is on the lower right-side of the page.

The WOIS Executive Committee recently reviewed nearly 40 WOIS scholarship applications and chose three students to each receive $750 toward their postsecondary education.

The three scholarship recipients were:

David Yu, Colfax High School

Jessica Hutton, Eisenhower High School

Rebecca Campbell, Olympic High School

David Yu described his career search process and use of WOIS in the process as follows:

"High school has been called a crossroads of life.  If so, WOIS has been the sign posts helping to point me down the right road.  At the beginning of senior year, I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.  WOIS uncovered patches of hidden talent and interest I never would have imagined, through its unique Career Interest Areas, Interest Profiler, and Skills tests.  I found my interest in medicine and technology, which helped me select my classes for senior year and contemplate a major in college.  WOIS has enabled me to follow up on my interests, providing droves of detailed information about careers, from education requirements, to current market outlook, to specific responsibilities.  It helped me substantiate my senior presentation about interning at the hospital and the requirements for the professions there.

"Furthermore, WOIS has fit in flawlessly with my other senior final projects and materials.  Utilizing my online portfolio to store my tests, activities, and college research, I built on online file system I could access from anywhere, a privilege I found invaluable in writing personal evaluations and preparing college applications.  I also incorporated WOIS with my senior portfolio for organizing my materials and presenting it in an efficient, systematic way.  From my career research project to deciding my destination next year and beyond, WOIS has added control and peace of mind to a frenetic senior year.

"At this key junction of my education, I highly appreciate my school's subscription to WOIS to guide me, to provide a roadmap in my crossroads of life."

Congratulations to all three WOIS scholarship recipients!

Now WOIS Portfolio administrators can Query the Post-High School Plans and Occupational Goals for students who have entered these details in the Education Planner section of the WOIS Portfolio.

This can be useful if you have a career speaker (let's say a Physical Therapist) coming to the school and you want to know which students have indicated Physical Therapist as an Occupational Goal.

It may also come in handy when you have a college (maybe Washington State University) visiting.  You can query the portfolios and get a list of the students who have indicated WSU as a college of interest.

After the query identifies the students who have indicated the selection, the administrator can send a note to each student (via the portfolio) to let them know the visitor will be at the school.

The query only works on entries in the Education Planner section of the WOIS Portfolio.