10/20/2008 - West Virginia Announces State Career Readiness Certificate Program

The Governor’s Office recently announced the development of a statewide Career Readiness Certificate program in West Virginia. The program will formalize activity that has been going on in the state for several years. The WorkKeys^® assessment system has been used and requested by companies in West Virginia for some time. Recently, for example, approximately 350 job applicants were screened with WorkKeys assessments via WorkForce West Virginia as they applied for 24 jobs at Bayer CropScience Institute (Charleston Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.com/Business/200808120222). KeyTrain® holds a statewide contract for use in Adult Education and is also used in high schools and WorkForce West Virginia sites throughout the state. It will be exciting to see the statewide CRC efforts build upon the outstanding results already experienced from the use of WorkKeys assessments and KeyTrain in West Virginia.

From the AP wire on October 13, 2008:
Prospective employers in West Virginia will soon be able to select from a certified work pool. Gov. Joe Manchin says the state will start a certification program later this month to show how proficient West Virginia workers are in reading, math and other important work skills. The program is being developed with ACT, the same company that conducts the college entrance exam. Manchin says the WorkKeys program is a partnership with WorkForce West Virginia and the state’s technical and community colleges. As an incentive for employers to use the program, Manchin says the state will pay for certain assessments that employers require for a job posting.

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