1. Helping people achieve education and workplace success.
ACT’s Mission
Helping people achieve education and workplace success.
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 a national leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality assessments grounded in nearly 60 years of research.
ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions designed to provide personalized insights that help individuals succeed from elementary school through career.
Mission driven, not-for-profit
National leader in college and career readiness
Sixty years of powerful research
Dedicated to success of individuals in education and the workplace
Dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success

2. Aligning Training to Meet Industry Demands
TIP: Right-click on the slide to view multiple color layout options.

3. Presenters:
Julie Gibson Director, Workforce, College and Workforce, ACT
Dr. Carol Ogletree Senior Industrial Organizational Psychologist, ACT

4. Agenda WorkKeys and Career Readiness Training and Curriculum alignment
Summary and closing remarks
Q&A

5. The Current State of Affairs
70% of the increase in postsecondary requirements is due to upgrades in skills demanded by occupations that previously did not require higher education
The earning gap between those that earn postsecondary credential vs. those that only complete a high school diploma has increased
A significant segment of today’s labor force does not have the requisite skills demanded by employers
The current state of affairs for the US labor market is one of change.
Research has shown that 70% of the increase in postsecondary requirements for job openings is due to upgrades in skills demanded by occupations that previously did not require higher education
Other studies have found that there is a widening earnings gap between individuals that earn some sort of postsecondary credential compared to those who only complete a high school diploma. This gap has increased steadily over the past decade.
At the same time, employer surveys find that employers feel that a significant segment of today’s labor force does not have the requisite skills demanded for vacant positions.

6. Measure Career Readiness with ACT WorkKeys

7. ACT® WorkKeys System Understand Job Skill Requirements
Measure Individuals’ Skills
Develop Skills to Match Requirements
Certify Individuals in Essential Skills
Research to Validate Outcomes
Wheel links to Work Ready System video
ACT in the workforce development space since 1993
Suite of work contextualized cognitive and non cognitive assessments with a process of profiling/analyzing skills needed for occupations on the same metric
Part of a system developed to document job skill requirements, measure individual skills, match to jobs, and to certify individuals as being “work ready”

8. ACT WorkKeys

9. Identifying errors in calculation Converting systems of measurement
Calculating areas and volumes
Interpreting trends, relationships, and patterns
Comparing information and trends among data sets
Using data to make decisions
Inferring meanings of words and phrases from contexts
Deciphering the meaning of acronyms, jargon, or technical content
Applying information and instructions to a new situation
ACT WorkKeys
NCRC

10. ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate
The ACT WorkKeys NCRC is the BIG value.
One way examinees can use their ACT WorkKeys Assessment scores is to work toward an ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate. The ACT WorkKeys NCRC measures and certifies essential work skills needed for success in jobs across industries and occupations.

11. ACT WorkKeys NCRC Levels
Minimum score of 6 on each NCRC assessment
Minimum score of 5 on each NCRC assessment
Minimum score of 4 on each NCRC assessment
Minimum score of 3 on each NCRC assessment
As you can see, there are four certification levels. Examinees must score a minimum on each of the three NCRC assessments (Applied Math, Workplace Documents, and Graphic Literacy) to receive a certificate. NCRC certificates are not rewarded on the average score of the three tests, but on the minimum level across all three tests.

12. Career Readiness and Education Outcomes
Research has demonstrated relationships between WorkKeys assessment performance and various education and employment outcomes, as shown below:
Career Readiness and Education Outcomes

13. Prior Learning Assessment
NCRC has been recommended by American Council on Education that colleges award up to 4 credit hours to recipients who achieve silver or above. Earning a GOLD/PLATINUM NCRC 2.0 = 4 semester hours towards a Bachelor/Associate’s degree

14. Supported by 20,000 Job Skills Profiles
Measure foundational workplace skills
Ensure students are ready for career success
Help employers find, hire, & train quality talent
Attract & maintain business & industry
Foundation for valuable credentialing systems
ACT® WorkKeys® assessments are based on situations in the everyday working world. They are supported by data from more than 20,000 job skills profiles and rooted in decades of workplace research. The assessments measure “hard” and “soft” skills, helping:
Individuals, from career seekers to longtime employees, measure their skills and advance their career goals
Educators, from high school through college, ensure their students are ready for career success
Employers find, hire, and develop quality talent
Workforce and economic developers prepare their workforce to attract and maintain business and industry
Industry associations and advocacy organizations develop valuable skills credentialing systems for a more productive, reliable, and profitable workforce

16. WorkKeys and Credentials
ACT WorkKeys NCRC aligns with other credentials
Improves training success when used for program entry
Improves industry credential attainment success when used as exit from training program
WorkKeys and Credentials
ACT WorkKeys NCRC
Foundational Skills
Competency based program of study or training
Occupational and/or Academic Credential
Ensure training programs are competency based through alignment
Supported by Lumina
Leverage WorkKeys NCRC as entry into program for better success
MSSC curriculum and credentials aligned for:
Production Technician
Logistics Technician

17. Training and Curriculum Alignment

18. WorkKeys & Training Programs
Job Profiling and Curriculum Profiling
WorkKeys Assessments
WorkKeys NCRC
WorkKeys Curriculum
Validity Research
WorkKeys & Training Programs
Profiling - tool to identify requirements of job, occupations, training program – next up is carol...

19. WorkKeys Uses A Common Metric
WorkKeys Uses Same Metric for System Components
WorkKeys Uses A Common Metric

20. Using WorkKeys Tools for Program Development
WorkKeys skills are foundational skills which are:
Basic skills that are used in most jobs,
skills that can grow and be developed with training, and
the kinds of skills that you must have in order to develop other skills (like knowing basic math principles in order to learn calculus.)

22. Job and Curriculum Analysis
Curriculum Profile
Job Profile
Occupation Profile
Cindy Hill to develop

23. WorkKeys Estimator
Documents decisions concerning the use of WorkKeys assessments
Quick - about minutes per skill
Easy-to-use - step-by-step format
Links to other job resources
WorkKeys Occupational Profiles
The O*NET® data base
Benefits
Helps employers determine the National Career Readiness Certificate level to recommend potential employees obtain to be successful in their jobs.
Helps educators identify the WorkKeys skills and skill levels needed to enter a training program and can provide individuals with the information they need to prepare for, and make decisions regarding, their readiness for program entry.
Assures employers that program graduates (i.e., current and prospective employees) have the WorkKeys skills and skill levels needed in order to be successful on the job.
Provides individuals to make informed decisions about jobs and to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, as they pursue their education and career goals.
Small employers, as defined by the Uniform Guidelines, can use WorkKeys Estimator to take advantage of WorkKeys assessments when they are selecting candidates.
Workforce developers can identify skill gaps in their communities by working with local employers to identify their needs and educators to ensure their training is aligned.
Participants:
Experts who are knowledgeable about the job, occupation or curriculum
Coordinator who facilitates the process
Management
Includes 6 skills: ncrc skills - Applied Math, Workplace Documents, GL, and Applied Technology, Workplace Observation, and Business Writing

24. WorkKeys Estimator

25. WorkKeys Estimator

26. WorkKeys Estimator Deliverable: Documentation of Skill Estimates
-- Releasing as online tool next week during workforce summit
-- Introductory price of $125 – goal is to provide tool to introduce workkeys --
Curriculum ESTMATES vs Curriculum DETAILS.
In a curriculum profile you start with existing Learning Objectives so the profiler doesn’t have to pull together a task list. In a basic, curriculum profile you would identify just the knowledge, skills and abilities, but you could also identify the tools and technology the students are learning. The

27. WorkKeys Estimator: Available in two weeks at the ACT iStore for $125
WorkKeys Estimator: Available in two weeks at the ACT iStore for $125! act.org/istore/wkestimator
Curriculum ESTMATES vs Curriculum DETAILS.

28. Job and Curriculum Analysis
Curriculum Profile
Job Profile
Occupation Profile
Cindy Hill to develop

29. Profile Process: Links Requirements to Assessments
Learning Objectives/Tasks of the Job
WorkKeys Tests
Profile Process: Links Requirements to Assessments
WorkKeys Profiling
Identifies WorkKeys skills and
skill levels required to perform
the tasks of the job/ complete a curiculum
Carol’s first slide?

30. Curriculum Profile Identify Learning Objectives
Instructors, Graduates, Students
Identify Learning Objectives
Identify WorkKeys skills & levels for entry and exit from the program
Curriculum ESTMATES vs Curriculum DETAILS.
In a curriculum profile you start with existing Learning Objectives so the profiler doesn’t have to pull together a task list. In a basic, curriculum profile you would identify just the knowledge, skills and abilities, but you could also identify the tools and technology the students are learning. The

31. Curriculum Profiling Procedure
Step 1—Comprehensive List of Learning Objectives
Step 2—Curriculum Review
Step 3—Skill Analysis for Curriculum
Step 4—Documentation

32. WorkKeys Skill Description
definition
level definition
examples
collect info
Example – of how common metric can lead to comprehensive use of workkeys tools (borrowed slide from cindy’s show)

33. MSSC Curriculum Profiles
Industry-led non-profit national certifying body with 700+ Authorized Assessment Centers in 44 states
Standards development involved 700 companies, 4000 front-line workers, 300 experts, $9 million public & private funds
Applicable to:
All front-line production jobs (6 million)
All front-line material handling and distribution jobs (5.3 million)
A broad population of: students, unemployed, under-utilized, career-changers, displaced & incumbent workers, and veterans
MSSC Curriculum Profiles
Example – of how common metric can lead to comprehensive use of workkeys tools (borrowed slide from cindy’s show)

34. MSSC Curriculum Profiles
Credentialing Programs included:
Certified Production Technician (CPT)
Five CPT individual certificate modules:
Safety
Quality Practices & Measurement
Manufacturing Processes & Production
Maintenance Awareness
Green Production
Certified Logistics Associate (CLA)
Certified Logistics Technician (CLT)
MSSC Curriculum Profiles

35. MSSC Curriculum Profile Results

36. MSSC Curriculum Profile Results

37. Using WorkKeys for career or training readiness
MSSC Curriculum Profile Results
Curriculum profiles identify the skill levels required for entrance into a program of study and for program completion.
MSSC Certified Logistics Associate and Certified Logistics Technician
Using WorkKeys for career or training readiness
Curriculum profiles identify the skill levels required for entrance into a program of study and for program completion. Curriculum alignments facilitate objective discussions between employers and educators to identify courses of action that can be taken to update curriculum to meet employer needs. The results from a curriculum profile and a job or occupational profile are the foundation of a curriculum alignment.
The results from a curriculum profile and a job or occupational profile are the foundation of a curriculum alignment.

38. MSSC Curriculum Profile Results
Curriculum Profile Deliverable: Detailed Support for Identified Skill Level Needs

39. Curriculum Profiling Deliverables
Various Curriculum Profile Models and Deliverables

40. Aggregated Job Profile Results Occupational Profile Results
Online data – for career advisement
Note: that this data is entry into a JOB , not entry into a CURRICULUM
And I will share some examples of the value of profiling data to employers and in education
and by that time you may not want to know any more about profiling, but I’ll highlight what it takes to be a profiler and what you can expect from the training should you really want to be one of us
Median Wages: $44.45 hourly, $92,460 annual Green Occupation

41. Over 600 dislocated Ohio manufacturing workers
Grant
Over 600 dislocated Ohio manufacturing workers

42. Best Practices: Jefferson College
Example – of how common metric can lead to comprehensive use of workkeys tools

43. WorkKeys Solutions Summary
Benefits
Helps employers determine the skill levels (including National Career Readiness Certificate levels) to recommend potential employees obtain to be successful in their jobs.
Helps educators identify the WorkKeys skills and skill levels needed to enter a training program and can provide individuals with the information they need to prepare for, and make decisions regarding, their readiness for program entry.
Assures employers that program graduates (i.e., current and prospective employees) have the WorkKeys skills and skill levels needed in order to be successful on the job.
Provides individuals to make informed decisions about jobs and to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, as they pursue their education and career goals.
Workforce developers can identify skill gaps in their communities by working with local employers to identify their needs and educators to ensure their training is aligned.

44. Thank you!
Q & A