Employers across the country are overwhelmed by stacks of applications for only a handful of open positions. Sifting through these applications is time consuming and inefficient. You need a way to quickly pinpoint individuals with essential, verifiable workplace skills. Your solution: the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate™ (ACT NCRC).

What is an ACT National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC)?

The ACT NCRC is a portable, evidence-based credential that documents essential skills needed for workplace success. This credential is used across all sectors of the economy and verifies the following cognitive skills:

• Problem solving 
• Critical thinking
• Reading and using work-related text
• Applying information from workplace documents to solve problems

The four NCRC levels that can be earned are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum and indicate the test takers skills in the areas indicated above.

What is an ACT Work-Ready Community?

An ACT Work Ready Community is one where local employers either recognize or recommend the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate, and acknowledge its value as an indicator of workplace skills in hiring and/or promotion practices.

How can the NCRC help you?

Employers who post a job opening on OhioMeansJobs.com automatically have ACT WorkKeys® skills scores added to their position description, indicating the skill levels preferred for that particular job. Skills-based hiring is a regional effort driven by business and supported by workforce development organizations, public agencies, schools, community colleges, social service agencies, adult basic education organizations, foundations and others. The purpose is to demonstrate that when employers use NCRC’s or ‘skills scores’ as a part of their hiring process, they increase the size of their applicant pool, improve retention rates, reduce costs and at the same time expand employment opportunities for job seekers who have the required skills but lack the educational credentials traditionally used to screen job applicants. Starting in 2018, the Ohio Department of Education will require that students “earn an Industry Credential and score a Workforce Readiness Score on the WorkKeys” as one of the high school graduation requirements.