Partnerships Key to Economic Recovery

There’s never been a better time for education and workforce to join forces.

As our country emerges from the recession, thousands of workers need to be retrained so they can fill employers’ demands for higher levels of skills.

In a growing number of regions around the country, various organizations—primary and secondary schools, community colleges, universities, workforce and economic development agencies, employers, and labor groups—are aligning their resources to help transform and strengthen the American workforce.

Some of these partnerships are creating career pathway programs that help workers upgrade their skills and transition to new careers and, ultimately, provide employers with larger pools of qualified applicants. Career pathways are a series of connected education and training programs and support services that enable workers to secure employment within a specific industry or occupational sector and advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment. Each step on a career pathway prepares workers for the next level of education and employment.

National associations that represent the needs of businesses—such as ACT’s newest partner, the National Center for Construction Education and Research—are recognizing the value of ACT’s WorkKeys^® and the National Career Readiness Certificate in their career pathways models.

In a time like this—when there are plenty of skilled jobs available, but not enough skilled workers to fill them—partnerships may be the key to solving this crisis.