ACT Workforce Solutions
for K-12 Educators

38% of high school students will go straight into the workforce upon graduation.

 

Are you preparing your students for workplace success?

There’s never been a more challenging time to be an educator. Ensure your students are career ready and boost their employability with the WorkKeys suite.

When you talk to employers, more than half say they can’t find qualified candidates, according to a CareerBuilder® study. Simply put, the speed of change in workplace skill requirements is outpacing educators’ ability to prepare their students, leaving a widening skills gap.

What can educators such as you do to close that gap? And, more important, how can you ensure that your students are prepared for life beyond their diploma?

Help Students Build, Measure, and Share Essential Workplace Skills

Help students build essential skills needed for learning, personal development, and effective job performance with ACT WorkKeys Curriculum.

Measure your students’ career-ready skills for future success with ACT WorkKeys Assessments.

Offer your students a nationally recognized credential that will get them noticed by employers with ACT WorkKeys NCRC.

Analyze specific job tasks and link required skill level to pinpoint benchmarks for training with ACT WorkKeys Job Profiling.

2024 ACT Workforce Summit

A Gathering of Workforce Development Leaders

The  ACT Workforce Summit is a one-of-a-kind annual event that attracts leaders in workforce and economic development, secondary and postsecondary education, government, and business to connect and learn about the latest trends and strategies in talent and workforce development.

Join us in Atlanta from October 4-6 as we focus on creating credentialed career pathways that supply employers with a reliable talent pipeline.

“The stronger we make the transition to postsecondary institutions and employers, the better job we’re going to do preparing students for college and career readiness.”

Chad Steinmetz, Wisconsin high school principal

Prepare Your Students for Workplace Success

ACT WorkKeys is a system of assessments, curriculum, certification, and skills profiling that builds and measures essential workplace skills that can affect your students’ job performance and increase opportunities for career changes and advancement. 

By completing the assessments, individuals can earn the National Career Readiness Certificate® (NCRC®).

 

Administer Assessments

ACT WorkKeys Assessments measure foundational skills required for success in the workplace and help measure the workplace skills that can affect job performance.

Individuals who successfully complete the three WorkKeys assessments—Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents—earn the WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate® (WorkKeysNCRC®), a valuable credential for students and job seekers seeking to verify foundational workplace skills. ACT WorkKeys also offers additional assessments to measure interests, values, and behaviors that can lead to greater job satisfaction.

Demonstrate Career Readiness with NCRC

When students join the job hunt, their job applications will mix with many others on the desks of employers. How can you help your students move their applications to the top of the stack? Give them the opportunity to earn the WorkKeys NCRC.

The WorkKeys NCRC is a portable, evidence-based credential that certifies the essential skills for workplace success. Employers look for it from job candidates, whether they come directly from high school, work-based learning programs, or through postsecondary paths, because it is a valid predictor of job performance. 

"For those who do choose a CTE [career and technical education] path, they would also leave with some industry-standard credentials and technical studies, so we think it's a good way to ensure students have a broad array of choices after they graduate."

Jo Ann Honeycutt, CTE Director at North Carolina DPI 

Award College Credit for NCRC Completion

Help Your Student Demonstrate College Competence with NCRC

The American Council on Education (ACE) recommends that colleges and universities award up to six semester hours of college credit to an individual who earns the WorkKeys NCRC at the Silver, Gold, or Platinum level. Credit awards are at the discretion of each school. 

What's Trending in Workforce?

We pride ourselves on staying ahead of trends in workforce development and pioneering the next game-changing solution to help businesses thrive. Complete the form to receive your bi-monthly Workforce newsletter, where you'll learn about topics related to:

  • Upskilling. 
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  • Work-based learning. 
  • Corrections.
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  • Upcoming events and deadlines.
  • Insights from industry experts.

Ready to Learn More About ACT WorkKeys?

Talk to an ACT representative to get started.