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.
Around the Globe with ACT
What do China, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and the Middle East have in common? They are among the many places around the globe where ACT’s education and workforce solutions are making a difference. Here is a sampling of what is happening internationally.
Officials from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, recently met with ACT staff in Iowa City to discuss administration of WorkKeys assessments at schools in this northeastern Mexico state. Clockwise from the bottom left of the photo are ACT staff members Ed Conard, David Chadima, Richard L. Ferguson, and Patrick Bourgeacq; Rogelio de los Santos Montemayor, Training and Certification Institute, SA de CV, Nuevo Leon; Jose Maria Fraustro, Nuevo Leon vice minister of education; Reyes Tamez Guerra, Nuevo Leon minister of education; Rogelio de los Santos Calderon, Training and Certification Institute, SA de CV; and Lavonne Mohn and Jim Morris, both of ACT.
China
ACT’s partnership with the China Center for International Educational Exchange (CCIEE) places the Global Assessment Certificate (GAC) program in nine government high schools in China. Officials administer the GAC over a three-year period to students in these schools. Staff are currently in discussions with the CCIEE on implementing other ACT solutions in China.
Staff have been establishing additional ACT Test Centers to meet demand from students who want to take the ACT and study in the United States. Students in China can now test on several dates at locations in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other nearby countries.
Europe
ACT Business Solutions, B.V., based in Madrid, is working with several private and public sector companies in France, Italy, and Spain on the administration of the English WorkKeys® system, which is designed to test English language proficiency in the workplace.
English is the international business language, and European companies invest much of their employee training budgets in English language training. English WorkKeys helps companies by measuring employee proficiency in four language-related skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The system uses a job profiling method called Key Skill Analysis to determine English language skills needed in jobs, assessments to determine employee skill levels, and training to boost those levels. The exams are administered via computer and telephone.
The list of European English WorkKeys clients is growing. Current clients include Amadeus, AstraZeneca, AXA, British Telecom, Credit Agricole, Europcar, Hitachi Data Systems, ING Direct, Intendis Pharma, Microsoft, Ormazabal Group, Sandoz, Schering Plough, Shenker Institute, Swissrisk Financial Systems, and Teekay Shipping. ACT Business Solutions also works with two publicly held companies in Spain. A trade union’s school of management provides English WorkKeys assessments to managers, and the country’s largest training institution offers the assessments.
Indonesia
As GAC program participation increases in Southeast Asia, ACT staff are in the process of establishing an office in Jakarta to provide support services to partners in that part of the world. In the past year, ACT has added seven GAC Approved Teaching Centers in Indonesia and two in Vietnam. In addition, six ACT Test Centers throughout the country administer the ACT.
Malaysia
Joff Allen
Staff are working with Asia e-University (AeU) to offer the GAC program in several locations. “This organization has created a university where all academic programs—from vocational degrees to doctorates—are delivered in English on its own campus in Malaysia and in 30 other countries across the region,” said Joff Allen, general manager of ACT Education Solutions, Limited.
Currently, the ACT® is administered at two locations, the International School of Kuala Lumpur and the Dalat School in Penang.
Mexico
ACT staff are working with the Training and Certification Institute, SA de CV, to provide Spanish-language versions of four WorkKeys assessments in the state of Nuevo Leon. The institute is administering Reading for Information, Locating Information, Applied Mathematics, and Applied Technology to high school students.
Institute officials will compare the results to those from a 2003 administration of the same WorkKeys assessments to determine the impact of pedagogical practices that were put in place after the 2003 administration.
The purpose is to identify best practices that can be applied throughout the state to improve teaching and learning.
The goal of the Nuevo Leon Department of Education is that students will score on par with countries that have ranked in the top 10 on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development sponsors PISA, an internationally standardized assessment that is administered to 15-year-olds throughout the world.
Nuevo Leon Department of Education officials believe WorkKeys will help them achieve their goal. The department will administer approximately 21,000 WorkKeys assessments.
Middle East
The Qatar Foundation continues to administer the ACT. The foundation is headquartered in Education City, a 2,500-acre campus on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar. Education City houses educational facilities for students from preschool age to university-entrance level.
It is also home to branch campuses of some of the world’s leading universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and Northwestern University.
Education City allows universities to share research and facilities and to forge relationships with businesses and institutions in the public and private sectors. The Qatar Foundation has established an ACT Test Center for its branch campus universities and other institutions. The ACT was administered during the 2007–08 testing cycle to some 1,500 Qatari students interested in attending one of Education City’s branch campus universities. ACT testing for 2008–09 has gotten off to a good start. Examinee volume for the October test date more than tripled the volume of the October 2007 test date.
In addition to Qatar, the ACT is administered throughout the Gulf region.
