Currently, employers across the country are overwhelmed by stacks of applications for only a handful of open positions. Sifting through these applications is time consuming and inefficient. You need a way to quickly pinpoint individuals with essential, verifiable workplace skills. One solution may be the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate (ACT NCRC), called ACT WorkKeys. WorkKeys, is a skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop, and retain a quality workforce. The assessments measure 12th grade level foundational skills and soft skills. Foundational and soft skills are required skills employers recognize to be essential to success in the workplace.
ACT WorkKeys assessment measures the foundational skills that employers require for success in the workplace. Individuals can earn the National Career Readiness Certificate by scoring at a certain level on three ACT WorkKeys assessment to include Applied Mathematics, Locating Information and Reading for Information. Employers may utilize the WorkKeys assessment to identify problem solving, critical thinking, reading and using work-related text, and applying information from workplace documents to solve problems. In addition, employers can utilize WorkKeys to assess an applicant’s ability to apply mathematical reasoning to work-related problems, set up and perform work-related mathematical calculations, and to locate, compare, combine and apply information that is presented graphically; thus, matching applicants’ skill levels to specific job requirements.
Yavapai College’s CTEC Career Coach James Voska has been assisting employers in using WorkKeys assessments since 1998. Voska offers a well-rounded understanding of the career assessment approach: “WorkKeys® assessments have been used for more than two decades to measure essential workplace skills and help people build career pathways. If individuals are entering the workforce without the skills employers need, WorkKeys is a first step toward closing skills gaps and improving workforce quality. Successful completion of three WorkKeys assessments – Applied Mathematics, Locating Information and Reading for Information – can help an individual earn the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), a portable credential that documents essential work skills. More than three million NCRCs have been issued across the United States. Supported by data from more than 20,000 job skills profiles and rooted in decades of workplace research, WorkKeys assessments are based on situations in the everyday working world, and used in 26 states across America.”
Yavapai College uses ACT Workkeys as a tool for the recently awarded National Science Foundation Grant, “Engineered for Success.” The grant allows Yavapai College to provide up to 20 students a year with meaningful work-based experiences through paid internships with local business partners. ACT WorkKeys helps in the selection of students in key programs qualified under the grant to ensure students have the basic skills required to be successful in their Internship programs.
Starting in March, YC will have a second career coach who will be qualified to teach and proctor ACT WorkKeys assessment. I am a YC career coach under the Regional Economic Development Center (REDC), and I am in the process of qualifying to be an ACT WorkKeys Facilitator. With both of us trained as ACT WorkKeys Facilitators, students who are participating in work-based learning programs at YC will have the option of completing the ACT Workkeys assessment process, giving students the valid credentials they need for employment and offering employers a tangible credential that reflects student competencies in foundation and soft skills. QCBN
By Linda Brannock
If you would like to meet with a YC Career Coach to discuss the ACT WorkKeys Assessment call James Voska at 928-717-7726 or Linda Brannock at 928-776-2170.
Linda Brannock is a Yavapai College career coach.
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