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Local Organization Sees Pivotal Role Boosting
Worker Training

September 23, 1997

Iowa City—ACT Inc. expects to have a key role in the work of a blue-ribbon panel formed to find ways of ending the nation's shortage of skilled workers, Richard L. Ferguson, corporation president, said today.

The Roundtable on Work, Learning and Assessment is a project of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. Ferguson, one of about 30 education, business and government leaders appointed to the panel, led one of two discussion groups at the roundtable's first meeting in Washington, DC, September 15.

The yearlong project will identify the changes schools and businesses need to make to prepare the workforce for the high-paying, advanced jobs employers are struggling to fill. Many experts think filling these positions with qualified workers is essential to the economy's continued growth and to raising American workers' standard of living.

Ferguson said he expects ACT to have "pivotal" input into what comes from the roundtable because of ACT's WorkKeys System.

"WorkKeys already answers the questions the roundtable is asking," Ferguson said, "and it's the only program of its kind in the nation. It was a big hit at the Washington meeting."

Employers use WorkKeys both to improve their training programs and to fill specific openings for skilled workers. More than 1,100 companies, including DuPont, Corning and Procter & Gamble, have used or are using WorkKeys.

Hundreds of schools across the country are also using WorkKeys to help students identify skill areas in which they need to improve. In addition, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia have incorporated elements of WorkKeys into their state education systems.