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Mesa County remains the first and only certified Work Ready Community in Colorado. But that could soon change.

Efforts are underway to expand the program in other West Slope counties, said Curtis Englehart, director of the Mesa County Workforce Center in Grand Junction.

The number of Carson High students who met all four benchmarks on the ACT test college prepatory test improved by 1.5 percent over the last year.

All high school juniors in the state take the ACT test. In 2018, 11.8 percent of CHS students taking the test met all four benchmarks in English, reading, math and science. That was an improvement over 10.3 percent who met all four benchmarks in 2017

Also mentioned are Lafayette Regional Airport’s future $90 million terminal; the Interstate 20 Cyber Corridor anchored by Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana Tech University and Monroe; and the Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance’s groundwork in establishing its 10-parish region as an ACT Work Ready Community

Now more than ever, Michigan businesses need a strong, skilled workforce. Yet with the tight labor market, finding the right talent can be challenging. The WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) is a standardized tool employers can use to gauge a prospective employee’s work skills. Has your business considered using this tool? 

WorkKeys is a national, standardized job skills assessment system that, by state mandate, is administered to all juniors in our state’s public high schools. The WorkKeys NCRC system is currently supported by 252 companies in Michigan and used to assess a job applicant’s core competencies in applied mathematics, locating information and reading for information. These three, key skills have been identified as the foundation for 90% of all jobs today.

Several area agencies, including the Chamber of Greater Springfield, Clark State Community College and Ohio Means Jobs of Clark County, have been working for about a year to certify Clark County in an ACT Work Ready program, said Amy Donahoe, director of hiring and employer services for the Chamber of Greater Springfield.

Since 2007, more than 1,000 Omaha residents, mostly African American and mostly low-income, have landed jobs in the growing manufacturing and tech sectors through targeted employment training in the city’s worst neighborhoods. The training began popping up after a local newspaper series noted that the booming Midwestern city had some of the most alarming racial disparities in the country, embarrassing civic leaders and politicians into action

City and county officials gathered Thursday at the Lowery A. Woodall Advanced Technology Center in Hattiesburg to celebrate the planned inclusion of Greater Hattiesburg – including all of Forrest and Lamar Counties – as an ACT Work Ready Community.

mployers in Craighead County now have one more tool to identify highly skilled workers for their companies. Craighead County is now an ACT Work Community, according to Jonesboro Unlimited.The purpose of establishing an ACT Work Ready Community is to close the skills gaps between potential employees and the needs of employers. Nationwide, more than 400 counties and 21,000 employers participate in the ACT Work Ready Program. Currently, 4.4 million people have attained their ACT Workkeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC). An NCRC certificate has four levels – platinum, gold, silver, and bronze.