NCCER and ACT Partner to Build Construction Industry Careers

The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) will use the National Career Readiness Certificate to help construction workers succeed.

NCCER is a not-for-profit education foundation created to develop industry-driven standardized curriculum with portable credentials and to help address the critical workforce shortage facing the construction industry. The organization’s processes of accreditation, instructor certification, standardized curriculum, assessment, and the credentialing and certification system (national registry) are key components in the industry’s workforce development efforts. Founded in 1996, the organization is affiliated with the University of Florida’s M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction and is headquartered in Gainesville, Florida.

The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) will incorporate the National Career Readiness Certificate into its programs to help prepare construction workers for training and jobs.

ACT will apply its research and workforce readiness solutions to assist NCCER in ensuring that prospective and current construction industry workers have the essential foundational skills to succeed in NCCER accreditation training courses and on the job.

Martin Scaglione

“We are very excited about this relationship with NCCER. The National Career Readiness Certificate is the common denominator that is missing from so many career pathway structures. As NCCER begins integrating ACT solutions into its already established curricula for craft accreditation, we anticipate opportunities for additional assessments, joint research, and policy-making initiatives to help America’s workers succeed,” said Martin Scaglione, president and chief operating officer, ACT Workforce Development Division.

NCCER will issue National Career Readiness Certificates to trainees to document their foundational skills. The National Career Readiness Certificate is based on three of ACT’s WorkKeys^® assessments measuring skills that ACT research has shown to be essential to workplace success: Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information.

Don Whyte

“As the economy rebounds, many construction jobs with excellent salaries will need qualified applicants,” said Don Whyte, president of NCCER. “These tough economic times call for clear career pathways to help new and transitioning workers prepare for jobs in construction.”

As the accrediting body for the construction industry, NCCER establishes the benchmarks for quality training and assessments. By partnering with industry and academia, NCCER has developed a system for certifying craft professionals through a modular-based learning process.

The process fosters national unity within the construction industry, while providing a defined career pathway with industry-recognized credentials. Yet, too many trainees and workers lack the foundational and workplace skills needed to succeed in the coursework. “The WorkKeys assessments that ACT has built and refined over almost 20 years, based on solid research in the workplace, will help indicate that our trainees are ready and able to succeed. The assessments and the National Career Readiness Certificate provide a consistent measure of skill levels and help identify specific training needs,” said Whyte.

NCCER offers a complete series of entry-level and journey-level assessments, which evaluate the knowledge and skill level of workers in a specific craft area. The organization develops all curriculum and course materials for more than 45 different craft areas with the help of subject matter experts who represent contractors and schools across the country. Subject matter experts ensure exceptional training programs that meet or exceed national industry standards.

By incorporating the National Career Readiness Certificate as a gateway measure for foundational skills, NCCER can be sure the investment its more than 600 sponsors make in training and certification will pay off, as the students will be truly prepared for the core curriculum coursework, which is a prerequisite to craft-specific coursework.

“The National Career Readiness Certificate is valuable as a common standard of measurement for assessing the foundational skill levels of workers,” said Scaglione. “Construction industry employers who sponsor NCCER training for their workers can be confident that those who earn a National Career Readiness Certificate will have the core foundational and learning skills they need to begin successful career paths in the industry.”