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Work Ready Communities
Align your workforce, education, and employers to build a stronger talent pipeline.
What Is a Work Ready Community?
ACT® Work Ready Communities® (WRC®) aligns community partners around a shared measure of workforce readiness: the ACT® WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC® ). The WRC framework helps communities connect workforce efforts, validate skills with trusted data, and build stronger talent pipelines that support long-term economic growth.
Who Is It for?
Find how Work Ready Communities can help you and your region.
Workforce Developers
Use WorkKeys NCRC data to align programs and close regional skill gaps.
Colleges & Training Providers
Align programs with workforce needs using WorkKeys insights.
The Challenge
Talent gaps persist. Systems are fragmented. Employers need more.
Skills misalignment leads to unfilled jobs
Education and training aren’t connected to demand
Employers lack a common standard for hiring
The Solution
Work Ready Communities align your entire region around a shared language of skills.
Education
Build career ready talent
Workforce
Connect and scale opportunity
Employers
Define demand and validate skills
Economic Dev
Drive growth and competitiveness
Proven Impact by Numbers
6,3M+
NCRCs Earned
590
Communities Engaged
29K+
Employers Supporting
All 50 States Represented
Employers Trust the NCRC
“
Workkeys has been a crucial component to everything that we do with the over $1.3 billion expansion that’s underway now at Mercedes.
— Donny Jones, Executive Director, Alabama Works
States with state or county-led ACT Work Ready Communities
Use this map to find communities including counties, parishes and other county equivalents that participate in the Work Ready Communities program. Select a state or territory to see which communities are working to build an ecosystem that attracts new businesses and benefits workers, employers, and the community-at-large.
How it works
A proven framework. A collaborative approach.
Align
Bring stakeholders together around regional goals.
Build
Develop talent pipelines and align resources.
Engage
Involve employers to validate skills and create demand.
Measure
Track outcomes and work toward WRC certification.
What they are saying
Real communities. Real results.
“
Now more than ever, Missouri needs a strong, skilled workforce to move our economy forward. Initiatives like ACT's Work Ready Communities are critical to preparing our future generation for high-skill, high-demand jobs.”
— Gov. Mike Parson, Governor, State of Missouri
“
Outstanding program that helps business recruit and retain qualified workers.”
— Dennis Donovan, Director Global Site Selection, Wadley, Donovan, Gutshaw Consulting
Already part of a Work Ready Community?
Access member tools, data, and resources on workreadycommunities.org.