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Guilford County Schools held a hiring fair Wednesday to recruit teaching assistants to fill gaps from large increases in student enrollment. Applicants needed 48 semester hours of higher education coursework.  The WorkKeys NCRC helps satisfy all but six hours as an alternative qualification.

WorkReadyNH is a tuition-FREE Professional Development course designed to strengthen the skills that employers are looking for in current employees and job applicants. In as little as three weeks, you will: -- Practice and improve your soft skills in class, including communication, customer service, teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. -- Enhance your resume and sharpen your interview skills. -- Hone your essential workplace skills at your own pace through online tutorials in reading and understanding workplace documents, applying math on the job, and interpreting graphs and charts. -- Earn two highly recognized credentials - WorkReadyNH Certificate from the Community College System of NH and the National Career Readiness Certificate from ACT.

ACT WorkKeys is one of the credentials authorized by Alabama for high school graduation requirements. The requirements are effective with the 2023-2024 school year and will affect students who graduate in the 2027-2028 school year and later.

Southeast Kansas, Northeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Missouri comprise the MOKAN Partnership and a region with six Work Ready Communities. This best practice example illustrates MOKAN's use of WRC in its economic development marketing efforts. The Autumn 2022 edition of FDI Alliance International magezine includes talent development strategies deployed through MOKAN.

2022 marks the 8th annual National Apprenticeship Week and celebrations November 14th through the 20th to showcase the success and value of apprenticeship to rebuild the economy, advance equity, and support under-served communities. On Episode 36 of Ready for Work, we take you to the recent ACT Workforce Summit in New Orleans for a keynote presentation featuring the Woodworks program at Roy O’Martin, a forestry-products leader in Louisiana and Texas. HR pro and Work Ready Communities ambassador, Donna Bailey presented a luncheon keynote on the three components that made Woodworks a success and some of the voices of excellence along the way.  Episode 36 concludes with a quick introduction to the Apprenticeship Ambassador initiative from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Pike County, Missouri, recently earned Work Ready Community (WRC) status, making Missouri the leader in the number of certified work ready communities in the U.S. In 2012, Missouri was selected to be one of the first four states to participate in the CWRC initiative. Jasper County, Missouri, became the first CWRC in the nation in 2013. Missouri now has more than 100 counties that are actively participating in the CWRC initiative.

The Medical Home Health Aide (Caregiver) boot camp includes four credentials stacked with the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate. 

Show Notes and Transcript for Episode 37 of Ready for Work

Presentation deck from the 2022 ACT Workforce Summit

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the No. 1 question he gets in recruiting private industry to Arkansas is how is industry going to get a workforce. The 10 counties in the Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District have become certified as ACT Work Ready Communities, state and district officials announced Wednesday.

"What you have done has allowed us to make the case that we have the workforce that is trained [and] ready to go," the Republican governor told more than 50 officials from southeast Arkansas at the state Capitol. "We know exactly their levels of expertise. They are certified, and we can make the case that southeast Arkansas is ready to do business and ready to receive a new investment of industry."