Search Activity
Past Issues
About Activity
Join the Mailing List
Notify me when the next issue is availableSubscribe to ACT Research and Policy Alerts to receive email notification when ACT issues new research and policy reports.
Platinum National Career Readiness Certificate Raises the Bar on Skills Qualification
ACT has added a platinum level National Career Readiness Certificate to encourage workers to seek higher levels of preparation and to recognize those who do.
“The platinum level certificate is intended to open more doors for workers by confirming that they are well prepared for postsecondary education and advanced technical and professional jobs,” said Martin Scaglione, president and chief operating officer of ACT’s Workforce Development Division.
The National Career Readiness Certificate, powered by ACT’s WorkKeys, verifies to employers that a worker has essential core employability skills in Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Locating Information. ACT has established through its WorkKeys Occupational Profile Database that these three skills are important to the majority of jobs. The database contains more than 16,000 job profiles.
The platinum level joins three other categories within the National Career Readiness Certificate system:
- Bronze Level indicates a worker has scored at least a Level 3 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 35 percent of the jobs listed in the database.
- Silver Level indicates a worker has scored at least a Level 4 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 65 percent of the jobs listed in the database.
- Gold Level indicates a worker has scored at least a Level 5 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 90 percent of the jobs in the database.
- Platinum Level indicates a worker has scored at least a Level 6 on each of the three assessments and has the necessary skills for 99 percent of the jobs in the database.
Workers who earn at least a bronze certificate are automatically eligible for a National Career Readiness Certificate in ACT’s registry. They can log on to www.myworkkeys.com and order a paper certificate or print a screen file that contains their scores and levels of achievement.
A small percentage of workers are expected to earn a platinum level certificate. “Achieving scores of 6 or higher on the three tests is very difficult, making the platinum certificate all that more exclusive,” said Scaglione.
