Community Groups and Businesses Prepare for Tomorrow’s Workforce Now
Regional and community organizations from across the country are joining forces with ACT to help improve the American workforce.
The organizations are part of ACT’s Tomorrow’s Workforce Now two-year initiative, which offers ACT WorkKeys assessments and the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate Plus (NCRC Plus) at no cost to thousands of participating employers and tens of thousands of workers.
“America need not relinquish its status as home to the world’s most highly skilled workforce,” said ACT CEO Jon Whitmore. “We can build on our country’s proud history by confronting the well-documented skills gap that threatens the vitality of American businesses and the future of American workers.”
The organizations—primarily community colleges— are convening groups of employers who are not actively using the NCRC Plus. Participating employers agree to test up to 20 individuals with four WorkKeys assessments: Locating Information, Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Talent. They also must complete WorkKeys Supervisor Surveys for each person tested to assess performance and other important on-the-job behaviors that are then linked to the WorkKeys assessments.
ACT will help businesses pinpoint deficiencies in their talent pipeline. Employers will obtain data about the assessed individuals and have an insider’s view of national research that correlates job skills to job performance by occupation. This research could help employers make more accurate hiring and promotion decisions, thus reducing turnover and training time and costs. The individuals who earn an NCRC Plus are able to certify essential job skills.
WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY
Fayetteville Technical Community College in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, are among the early adopters of Tomorrow’s Workforce Now. Here’s why they got involved.
“We think that ACT WorkKeys is a great low-cost tool to assist employers in making better decisions about hiring, training, and promoting. Our interaction with employers provides us with the opportunity to better align our training programs to meet their needs. In addition, individual participants stand to benefit through the acquisition of the National Career Readiness Certificate.”
Jim Jacobs, president, Macomb Community College
“Tomorrow’s Workforce Now gives businesses a look into their current capabilities and future potential. With this program, our community will take an improvement step forward in workforce capability. Most employers agree that their employees are their No. 1 resource, so it makes sense to select the best folks they can and support them with focused training.”
Paul Tangeman, Career Readiness Certificate/WorkKeys facilitator and certified ACT job profiler, Fayetteville Technical Community College
Email a link to this article
Complete the fields below and click "Send."
Please note that we do not share the names or email addresses with anyone.