RD590 - Virginia Career Readiness Certificate 2016 Annual Report


Executive Summary:
The Career Readiness Certificate, issued by Virginia and based on ACT’s WorkKeys® assessments – Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information – is a portable, evidence-based credential that provides individuals a workplace skills certification that employers can use to make reliable decisions on hiring and training. By putting the right people in the right jobs, businesses can be more productive and profitable.

Community colleges, partnering with their local Workforce Development Boards (WDB) and American Job Centers/One-Stops Centers, made connections to businesses and provided outreach efforts to continue access for individuals and employers to WorkKeys testing. In FY2016 (July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016), Virginia awarded approximately 7,140 CRCs, about a 24% decrease over the previous year’s figures. This number was reported from the Virginia CRC database. The Virginia CRC database includes data for the VA CRC and the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), issued by ACT and aligns with the same three assessments and scoring as Virginia’s CRC. Over the lifetime of this program, over 104,894 Virginians have received a CRC or NCRC.

Based on the criteria used to identify in-demand industry credentials adopted by the State Board of Community Colleges, the CRC/NCRC is not included as an industry credential under the new VCCS strategic plan. The community colleges continue to expand and promote the CRC/NCRC where here businesses and job seekers find value in the CRC/NCRC to measure essential workplace skills, help people build career pathways, and support employers to find and hire qualified workers.

The Virginia CRC website, hosted by the Virginia Community College System, continues to allow viewers to quickly learn about the CRC and access CRC data in Virginia and provides businesses access to examinees to help identify qualified workers in their region. Community colleges, local WIBS and American Job Centers/One Stop Centers continue to distribute marketing brochures that highlight the value of the CRC to individual job seekers and employers.