While the United States should be pushing alternatives to the traditional four-year college, it also should be pushing alternatives to the way we gauge preparedness for the workplace. The market can provide that as well. A good example is the five-year-old National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) program, developed by ACT, Inc. – the nonprofit organization that created the American College Testing Program, the primary alternative to the SAT.The idea behind NCRC, which has been endorsed by the American Association of Community Colleges, is to make it easier for employers to assess the skills of potential employees. As Mac Macllroy, past president of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, observed, “Predictability, uniformity, and certainty are universal goals of executives. The NCRC does this for the hiring process.”