Jump Start - IQ Quarterly Magazine Winter 2011 Feature Article
Help take the guesswork out of hiring by using this new employee credentialing program available through the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development.
Alaska Career Ready can help you:
- reduce employee turnover
- reduce employee training costs
- save hiring time and money, increasing productivity
and profitability.
You can use Alaska Career Ready to supplement or
replace your current employee assessments! And you can use it as a tool
to build the skills of current employees and evaluate them for promotion
or further training opportunities!
Alaska Career Ready tests three main foundational
academic job skills -- Applied Math, Reading for Information, and Locating
Information. It will help you identify which job applicants have the
most potential. Alaska Career Ready job seekers arrive with a nationally-recognized credential
that shows you what they can do.
Hire the right person, the first time. Use Alaska
Career Ready to help you make better hiring and promotion decisions
and to reduce your employee turnover and training costs.
Recognize, Request and Require!
The 3 Rs have a whole new meaning!
Recognize the Alaska Career Ready
Credential (National Career Readiness Certificate -- NCRC) when attached to a resume or presented by a job seeker,
as proof that the applicant has foundational job skills in the areas
of reading for information, locating information, and applied mathematics.
Request the NCRC from job applicants and refer those who do not have a credential
to their local Alaska Job Center for an assessment.
Require that candidates for your
job have an NCRC or use it to evaluate employees
for promotion.
The Credential and The Assessments
The NCRC is a personalized
certificate issued by the ACT company.
To earn the credential, a job seeker must take three
assessments – Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and
Locating Information. These assessments are different than most others;
they test the work skills required for more than 90 percent of all jobs
today:
1. Applied Mathematics — Measures workplace mathematical
reasoning and problem-solving skills from basic addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division to multiple math functions like calculating
percentage discounts and markups.
2. Reading for Information — Measures reading comprehension and reasoning
skills when using written text on the job including memos, letters,
directions, signs, notices, bulletins, policies and regulations.
3. Locating Information — Measures comprehension and application
of workplace graphics such as charts, graphs, tables, forms, flowcharts,
diagrams, floor plans, maps and instrument gauges.
The Assessments are developed by ACT®, the national
testing company best known for the ACT college admissions test, and
are proctored, so you can be confident in the results.
Thousands of companies worldwide use WorkKeys. WorkKeys uses the same scale to score tests and measure job skills, so you can make quick comparisons between a person's skill levels and the job requirements.
To view or download a description of WorkKeys skills by level
For information from ACT on how you can use WorkKeys
For more detailed information about the NCRC, follow this link: National Career Readiness Certificate.
Have a hard to fill job … a high turnover job?
Job profiling could be a solution.
Alaska Career Ready offers a solution to help employers
identify the skills and skill levels needed for a specific job –
job profiling.
Job profiling includes collecting job task information
from the company, interviews and focus groups with employees and managers,
on-the-job observation of employees at work, and review and analysis
of national job data. The result is a detailed, customized report listing
all job-related tasks, key skills and corresponding skill levels required
for a specific job. Job profiles are Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) compliant and in more than 15 years have never been legally challenged.
By comparing job profile information with the scores earned by a Alaska
Career Ready credential, employers can make more effective decisions
about hiring, training and promotion.
For more information about job profiling, contact
Laurie Fuglvog at the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development,
907-465-5926 or laurie.fuglvog@alaska.gov.
