Rowan County is A Work Ready Community

A strong and skilled workforce is a tremendous economic development advantage and in much demand from Rowan County employers. For that reason, Rowan County is seeking to become an ACT Work Ready Communities (WRC) to gain data, processes and tools that drive economic growth. We hope to leverage the ACT®WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate® (NCRC®) to measure and close the skills gap — and build a common frameworks that link, align and match our workforce development efforts.

What It Means for Rowan County

The ACT Work Ready Communities program assists counties with identifying skill gaps and quantifies the skill level of their workforce. Educators can then build career options aligned to the needs of business and industry.

By participating in ACT’s® Work Ready Communities initiative, Rowan County is helping:

• Business and industry know exactly what foundational skills they need for a productive workforce – and to easily communicate their needs
• Individuals understand what skills are required by employers – and how to prepare themselves for success
• Policy makers consistently measure the skills gap in a timely manner at the national, state and local levels
• Educators close the skills gap, via tools integrated into career pathways with stackable industry-recognized credentials
• Economic developers use an on-demand reporting tool to market the quality of their workforce

About the ACT® WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate®

The ACT® WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate® (ACT® WorkKeys® NCRC®) is an assessment-based credential issued at four levels. The NCRC measures and certifies the essential work skills needed for success in jobs across industries and occupations.

When you require or recommend the WorkKeys NCRC from your applicants, you’ll tap into the most qualified labor pool in your area.

This credential is used across all sectors of the economy and verifies the following cognitive skills:

• Problem solving
• Critical thinking
• Reading and using work-related text
• Applying information from workplace documents to solve problems
• Setting up and performing work-related math calculations

What It Means for Employers

Employers are supporting ACT Work Ready Communities by recognizing the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate as a measure of foundational workplace skills. By publicly supporting ACT Work Ready Communities, these employers are helping their counties build a strong workforce development initiative and attain the ACT Work Ready Communities status.

The ACT® WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate® is a portable, industry-recognized credential that clearly identifies an individual’s WorkKeys® skills in workplace documents, applied math and graphic literacy – skills required for 77 percent of jobs based on ACT JobPro database.

Employers embracing a common language around workforce skill requirements is a crucial part of the Work Ready Communities effort. Securing the support of local businesses one of the community goals for gaining certification. And in doing so, they will have a more qualified workforce ready to fill their jobs
You can view a list of Rowan County employers that support this effort here.

If your business would like to join these employers who support a common workforce readiness standard offered by the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness certificate, please register here. It’s simple and you just need to provide the following:

Your level of support can be in the category of Recognize ( you feel that WorkKeys is a good indicator of workforce skills) or Recommend (you give preference to candidates who have a certificate when deciding who to hire or promote).