Clark County, Nevada is now a certified ACT® Work Ready Community, a national designation that uses hard data to help close the skills gap and produce a workforce ready to meet the needs of current and future employers.
To date, Clark is the only county in Nevada and the largest county in the nation to receive the certification.
The announcement occurred during the June 11, 2019, meeting of the Workforce Connections Local Elected Officials Consortium.
“Having an available, skilled workforce is the top priority for companies doing business in Southern Nevada or considering a move here,” said Jaime Cruz, Workforce Connections executive director. “This certification signals we as a community understand what skills employers are looking for, and we are working with our economic development, education and workforce development partners to meet those demands.”
More than 550 employers in Southern Nevada already support this initiative which revolves around the WorkKeys® Assessments.
Just as colleges and universities rely on the ACT exam to determine a student’s readiness for higher education, the ACT WorkKeys Assessments determine a job seeker’s readiness for the workplace by measuring a range of foundational workplace skills. Those skills include critical thinking, problem solving, graphic literacy, understanding workplace documents, as well as following workplace procedures.
Job seekers who pass the three main assessments earn a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) proving to employers their job readiness skills. If skills gaps are identified, the ACT WorkKeys curriculum helps close those gaps.
So far, nearly 10,000 local individuals have been awarded a NCRC.
“We are proud that Clark became the largest county in the nation to be certified by ACT as a Work Ready Community. We will produce a workforce that is ready to meet the needs of employers,” said Clark County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick.
Learn more about the initiative at www.nevadaworkready.org.