ACT WorkKeys Solutions for Employers
Build the Skilled Workforce You Need — and Hire with Confidence
ACT Work Ready Communities (WRC) is a national framework that unites employers, educators, and workforce organizations around a common hiring standard: the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), a skills-based credential that objectively measures the foundational abilities workers need to perform on the job. For employers, WRC gives you a direct line into the regional talent pipeline — and a common standard to cut through the noise when evaluating candidates.
Your Region's Advantage
Shape the workforce your business needs before you needto hire
By recognizing the NCRC and engaging with your local WRC, you send a signal to training providers, schools, and job seekers about exactly
what skills you value — and the entire regional ecosystem responds. Over 29,000 employers across the country are already doing exactly this.
Hire with a Verified Standard
The WorkKeys NCRC provides a consistent, objective benchmark for essential workplace skills — so you spend less time screening and more time onboarding the right people.
Reduce Turnover and Training Costs
Candidates who meet WorkKeys NCRC requirements are better matched to your job requirements from day one — lowering ramp time, reducing mis-hires, and improving retention.
Influence the Talent Pipeline
Your public support of the Workkeys NCRC shapes what local schools and training programs teach — turning you from a passive consumer of talent into an active shaper of it.
Strengthen Your Region
Employer engagement is a core WRC metric. Your participation helps your community achieve — and maintain — Work Ready Community certification, attracting more investment and talent.
The Value of ACT WorkKeys for Employers
Explore how employers can use WorkKeys to assess skills and drive growth.
Find the Best Candidates and Upskill Your Employees
How ACT WorkKeys Benefits Employers
ACT WorkKeys is a system of assessments and curriculum that build and measure essential workplace skills that can affect your employees' job performance and increase opportunities for career changes and advancement. By completing the assessments, individuals can earn the National Career Readiness Certificate® (NCRC) — the nation’s most recognized work readiness credential. Issued at four levels of achievement, the NCRC measures and certifies the essential work skills needed for success in jobs across industries and occupations.
Lower Employee Turnover
Reduce Hiring Costs and Improve Performance
Gain More Qualified Applicants
Increase Hiring Effectiveness
Pinpoint the Skills Needed to Grow Your Business
Curriculum
Help employees build essential skills needed for learning, personal development, and effective job performance with the ACT WorkKeys Curriculum.
Assessments
Measure learner's career-relevant skills for success in the workplace with WorkKeys Assessments.
Credentialing
Require or recommend from your applicants the nationally recognized WorkKeys NCRC credential and tap into your area’s most qualified labor pool.
Job Profiling
Analyze specific job tasks and link required skill levels to pinpoint benchmarks for training with ACT WorkKeys Job Profiling.
On-Demand Webinars
Connect Classrooms to Careers with the “8 Degrees of E”
See how Iredell County, NC is boosting student outcomes through career-focused learning and the “8 Degrees of E” framework.
Mastering Credential Selection
Explore critical factors such as accreditation, industry recognition, and the transparency of credentialing processes to help guide you through the process of identifying and evaluating credentials that uphold the highest standards of quality.
ACT Summit
Where Policy and Practice Meet Purpose
For Workforce, K-12, and Higher Education Leaders
Join us at the 2026 ACT Summit in Nashville, July 13-15, where leaders from K-12, higher education, and workforce sectors come together to solve today's most pressing challenges, sharing actionable insights and innovative strategies to shape the future of education and the workforce.
Administer Assessments
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® (WorkKeys NCRC®), 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.
Purchase Curriculum for Employee Training
Upskill and Reskill Your People
ACT has been working to improve career readiness and close the skills gap for more than 60 years. WorkKeys® Curriculum is a proven tool for helping individuals acquire skills critical to workplace success. Ensure your employees build the essential, career-relevant skills needed for learning, personal development, and effective job performance. It’s the only curriculum built from the ground up to align with WorkKeys® Assessments and the WorkKeys NCRC.
Match Skills to Jobs
Identify the Skills Required for Your Job
Determining which people are the best fit for your jobs, or which employees are top candidates for job-specific training, can be challenging. WorkKeys® Profiling analyzes specific job tasks and links the required skill level with the WorkKeys Assessments to pinpoint benchmarks for hiring, recruiting, advancement, and training. The job profiling process tells you which WorkKeys tests and test scores relate to your most in-demand jobs. Customize your use of WorkKeys by conducting and receiving a WorkKeys Job Profile.
Hire the Best Applicants
The WorkKeys NCRC® is an assessment-based credential that measures and certifies essential work skills needed for success in jobs across industries and occupations.
This credential is awarded at four levels and verifies skills proficiency in:
- Problem solving and critical thinking
- Reading and using work-related text
- Applying information from workplace documents to solve problems
- Applying mathematical reasoning to work-related problems
- Setting up and performing work-related mathematical calculations
- Locating, synthesizing, and applying information that is presented graphically
- Comparing, summarizing, and analyzing information presented in multiple related graphics
Require or Recommend the NCRC
Job applicants can present you with their NCRC as a part of the application process. When you require or recommend the WorkKeys NCRC from your applicants, you'll tap into your area's most qualified labor pool.
How Employers Use ACT WorkKeys to Empower Work-Ready Communities
Employers identify and easily communicate the foundational skills they need for a productive workforce.
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.
- Economic development.
- Talent retention.
- Work-based learning.
- Corrections.
- Apprenticeships.
- Upcoming events and deadlines.
- Insights from industry experts.
Ready to Learn More About ACT WorkKeys?
Talk to an ACT representative to get started.