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Certified Work Ready Community? A Certified Work Ready Community is a community-based workforce and economic development effort that uses common, fundamental criteria to establish baseline goals for county certification across the nation that enables counties to show that they are “work ready”. 2

SC Work Ready Communities Certified Community Components:  WorkKeys Assessments  National Career Readiness Certificates  Business Support  Graduation Rates/Improvements over a 3-year average by county  Soft Skills: Percentage of Individuals required to take the WorkKeys Talent Assessment 3

Work Readiness System  WorkKeys Assessments  National Career Readiness Certificates  Career Ready 101, a tutorial training courseware, which includes KeyTrain and Talent  Job Profiles 4

What is SC investing in?  WorkKeys Assessments  Available through public testing sites to include: SC Works Centers, Technical Colleges, Adult Education, and Vocational Rehabilitation Centers and High Schools (only for students).  National Career Readiness Certificate and NCRC Plus registration and printing costs  Career Ready 101, a tutorial training courseware, which includes KeyTrain and Talent  Training courseware will be available to any city, county or state entity. 5

What is SC investing in?  Job Profiles  First come-first serve basis  Job profile costs up to $1,500 per profile reimbursed to a licensed Job Profiler  Business will have to sign a release form  Maximum number of profiles per business  Small-5-49 employees: 2 profiles per business  Medium employees: 5 profiles per business  Large-250 and above employees: 10 profiles per business 6

County Participation 7

SC Report Card SCWRC Certificates through January 2014 SC Certified County: Clarendon and McCormick Top 5 Performing Counties Bamberg (100% national criteria) Colleton (100% national criteria) Dorchester (100% national criteria) Laurens (100% national criteria) Greenwood (97.64% national criteria) 38,976 (206,896 total to date) 27% Bronze 58% Silver 15% Gold Less than 1% Platinum NCRC Plus 3,190 Actual Business Supporting1,159 # of Job Profiles Completed or Scheduled125+ **SWIB/DEW $’s available for approximately 465 profiles$750,000

What is the Role of the Education Community? 9  You are preparing your students for life beyond high school, including their careers. When they join the job hunt, their job applications will mix with many others on the desks of employers.  Help your students move their applications to the top of the stack. Give them the opportunity to earn ACT’s National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC).

Why It’s Important to Students  Provides students with an industry recognized credential upon graduation which provides students with a competitive advantage in the job search process.  Enhances Employability  Identifies, measures and improves foundational skills  Confirms job readiness to employers 10

Results  Connect Job Opportunities for Job Seekers  Create an Inventory of Skill Sets  Locally Driven Approach 11

Results Employers Recognize the NCRC because it connects to jobs 12

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