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S.C. joining nationwide work skills certificate program
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
South Carolina is preparing to adopt a new worker skills credential that is gaining popularity across the nation.
The Career Readiness Certificate, created by the Iowa-based American College Testing program, is a credential telling employers that a potential employee is qualified for a particular job. The qualification is based on American College Testing’s WorkKeys job skills assessment system, also created by ACT.
Under the WorkKeys system, a certified job profiler visits a company’s work site to determine the skills employees need to perform their jobs successfully.Potential employees are then tested to see if they have those necessary skills. The fee for the service is about $1,600.
The Career Readiness Certificate focuses on three major WorkKeys assessments: applied mathematics, reading and locating information, which involves the ability to interpret and use illustrations, graphs, tables and diagrams. Applicants must score at certain levels in the WorkKeys assessments to qualify for a certificate.
There are three certificates: gold, silver and bronze. Gold, the highest certificate, means the applicant consistently scored at level 5 or higher on the WorkKeys assessments. Silver means the applicant consistently scored at level 4 and higher, and bronze level 3 or higher.
The certificates are recognized by all states participating in the Career Readiness Certificate program. Employers who see a potential employee’s certificate know the employee’s skill level.
“They know the applicant has the skills to do the essential functions of an entry-level job,” said Paul Connerty, executive director of the Trident One-Stop Career Center in North Charleston, which offers WorkKeys assessments for companies in the tri-county area.
High school diplomas and General Educational Development high school equivalency certificates often have different standards and offer employers no guarantee that job applicants have the necessary skills for employment. The Career Readiness Certificate erases that doubt, said Jennifer DeWitt, program administrator for the Lowcountry Manufacturers Council, a consortium of manufacturers throughout the tri-county area.
“The Career Readiness Certificate is a standard that levels the playing field,” DeWitt said.
Because of its uniform standard, the certificate is portable. Job applicants who received the certificate in one state can present it when applying for jobs in another state, and employers will know applicants have met WorkKeys job-skill requirements, DeWitt said.
This will save employers time and money in training potential employees, DeWitt added.
So far, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia offer the Career Readiness Certificate, according to ACT’s “National Career Readiness Certificate” publication.
The goal is to have the certificate offered in all 50 states, Connerty said.
The S.C. Department of Commerce is working to put the Palmetto State on that list.
To receive a certificate, applicants must score no lower than the minimal level of required competency in each WorkKeys skill assessment. Applicants who need to improve their math, reading or information-locating scores can take remedial courses at Trident One-Stop Career Center and then retake the WorkKeys tests. While the WorkKeys tests cost $10 each, the remedial courses are free, Connerty said.
WorkKeys tests can be taken at either the One-Stop Career Center, the Venture Industries Adult Center in Summerville or the Berkeley Educational Center in Moncks Corner.
The Trident Workforce Investment Board recently has agreed to fund WorkKeys profiler services for companies that have never before used the WorkKeys program, Connerty said.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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