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
Curriculum
Prepare students for the modern workforce with learning, development, and job performance skills using ACT WorkKeys Curriculum.
Assessments
Measure your students’ career-ready skills for future success with ACT WorkKeys Assessments.
Credentialing
Offer your students a nationally recognized credential that will get them noticed by employers with ACT WorkKeys NCRC.
Job Profiling
Analyze specific job tasks and link required skill level to pinpoint benchmarks for training with ACT WorkKeys Job Profiling.
ACT Summit
Unite, Innovate, Drive Change
Join us at the 2025 ACT Summit, 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.
On-Demand Webinar: Elevating Learner Success with ACT WorkKeys Career Navigation Resources
Explore how WorkKeys Assessments align with occupational skills levels and job market demands, equipping educators with tools to empower their learners and guide them toward successful careers.
“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, helping testers understand and prepare for the job performance expectations of employers.
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 and helps educators prepare students for postsecondary success.
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.
How Educators Use ACT WorkKeys to Empower Work-Ready Communities
Educators strengthen the workforce of their community with skills-based career navigation, talent assessment, and skills development tools aligned with career pathways and stackable industry-recognized credentials, helping to align students' educational goals with current market needs.
Ready to Learn More About ACT WorkKeys?
Talk to an ACT representative to get started.