Star City, AR—Lincoln County, today announced that it has met all criteria to become a certified ACT Work Ready Community. This achievement caps a 20-month engagement process and begins a two-year growth and maintenance phase to retain certification.
The ACT Work Ready Communities initiative is designed to assist a particular area, region or state in developing its workforce pipeline to provide skilled workers for employers. The framework allows each participating community to quantify and improve the skill levels of its workforce through a standardized workforce skill credential—the ACT WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate™—supported by data updated online by Iowa-based ACT on a monthly basis.
To begin this certification process, Lincoln County leaders attended the ACT Work Ready Communities Boot Camp, an executive leadership and training program designed and hosted by ACT. They then began to work toward their certification goals by building awareness, cooperation and commitment with local employers, policymakers, educators and economic developers.
“We at Star City School District are proud to have this vital partnership with local businesses that are willing to provide opportunities to our students beyond high school,” said Jordan Frizzell, Director of Student Services, Star City School District. “We have a strong commitment to ensuring success for every child, whatever it takes, and this initiative further supports that mission.”
“We congratulate Lincoln County for this significant achievement, and we are proud to add them to our growing list of certified ACT Work Ready Communities,” said Tony Garife, ACT Regional Manager, Workforce Initiatives. “The progressive thinking and positive action demonstrated by county leadership shows an enduring commitment to growing the economic success of the area. As a result, local residents will begin seeing the important linkage between education and workforce development and the value of matching people to jobs.”
The common building blocks of the initiative include:
ACT WorkKeys® assessments: Standardized tests that measure an individual’s essential work readiness skills in applied math, workplace documents and graphic literacy. According to decades of ACT research, these foundational skills are essential for a majority of today’s jobs.
ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate: A national credential based on assessment results and issued at the bronze, silver, gold or platinum level to indicate career readiness.
ACT Career Curriculum, ACT KeyTrain® and ACT Soft Skills Suite training tools help individuals improve their “hard” and “soft” skill levels, as well as ACT Career Ready 101™ helps teachers bring work readiness skills into the classroom.
Job profiles: A job analysis system that helps employers understand the specific ACT WorkKeys assessment scores required for entry into and effective performance in a given job.
For more information on this initiative, go to workreadycommunities.org. For more information on all of ACT’s workforce solutions, go to act.org/workforce.
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About ACT
ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from kindergarten through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, go to www.act.org.