SCA and Partners:
Building a Certified Business Ready Pool Of Workers for Industry

What is the WorkKeys® System?

WorkKeys is rapidly becoming the nationwide standard for measuring and communicating basic workplace skills. WorkKeys is currently in use in all 50 states in the United States. WorkKeys was developed by ACT, Inc., the creators of the ACT Assessment® college entrance exam.
The WorkKeys® Employment System is a comprehensive system for measuring, communicating and improving the common skills required for success in the workplace. It allows these skills to be quantitatively assessed in both individual persons and in actual jobs. Therefore WorkKeys can allow you to correctly identify individuals who have the basic skills required to be successful in a given position or career. ACT's rigorous approach has guaranteed that the WorkKeys assessment and job profiling systems are EEOC compliant and legally defensible. This means that, when properly used, businesses can make hiring and promotion decisions based on WorkKeys with confidence and security.


WorkKeys is a Flexible System of Components

The major components of WorkKeys include:

• Job Profiling - Determining the basic skills required for individual jobs and occupational careers
• Assessment - Measuring the basic skills that individuals can apply to workplace situations
• Training - Curriculum guidelines from ACT and curriculum from ACT Level 1 publishers designed to improve an individual's skills so that they can be successful in jobs of their choice
• Research - ACT's extensive research and validation has resulted in a tool that, when properly used, is EEOC compliant and legally defensible.

Note that WorkKeys deals with the foundation skills required by all jobs, such as reading, mathematics, teamwork and others. These skills are required by essentially all jobs, from entry-level positions to white-collar professionals, although to different degrees in each job. WorkKeys allows you to see how much and to what degree of complexity each skill is required in an individual position. WorkKeys does not deal with job-specific training. For instance, WorkKeys would not train or measure the performance of a person to be a printing press operator. However WorkKeys does ensure that a prospective employee could read and understand a typical press operation manual, read the gauges and dials on the machine, work with others in the company, and with the proper guidance become a successful press operator. Without first knowing that a person possesses these basic abilities, efforts to train a potential press operator could be wasted. In this way, WorkKeys helps a business to avoid mistakes in hiring and training a person who is not ready to absorb the information presented in the training.



For Employers:  Why use WorkKeys?

• Reduce employee turnover, overtime, and waste by ensuring that employees have the basic skills necessary to be effective in the workplace.
• Improve the results of your training practices by making certain that trainees have the basic skills to make the most of your investment in training.
• Provide community educators tools to identify gaps between student skills and employment needs, therefore, providing a better trained workforce for the future.
• Boost career advancement, morale, and self esteem by documenting and increasing employees’ skills levels.
• Request job applicants to be WorkKey certified.
• Recognize those who get WorkKey Certified.
  
  

For Employees and Job Seekers:  How to Be WorkKeys® Certified

For residents of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell and Hampton Counties, contact Rhonda McElveen at SouthernCarolina Alliance at 803.541.0023 for information on WorkKeys testing and training opportunities.