WorkKeys Skills-Based Career Navigation Toolkit

Welcome to the WorkKeys Skills-Based Career Navigation Toolkit, your comprehensive hub for career navigation resources!

This toolkit is designed to empower educators, workforce professionals, and organizations to help individuals understand their skills, explore career options, and plan a successful career path using their WorkKeys Assessments results.

About the WorkKeys Skills-Based Career Navigation Toolkit

The WorkKeys Skills-Based Career Navigation Toolkit offers a suite of tools and resources to support career journeys. Backed by over 30 years of job and occupational profile data gathered directly from employers and the people who do the jobs in the workforce, our system aligns with industry standards to ensure individuals have the skills needed for success. The system includes data from over 22,000 jobs and is supported by contributions from 88,000 subject matter experts.

Why Invest in WorkKeys Assessments and Curriculum

  • Alignment with Industry Standards: Developed by subject matter experts, WorkKeys benchmarks align with industry standards, ensuring relevant skill development. 
  • Career Readiness: Provides a clear picture of the skills required for various jobs, helping individuals prepare effectively. 
  • Enhanced Employability: By understanding and improving their WorkKeys scores, individuals can match their skills with job requirements, improving their employability. 
  • Data-Driven Insights: The system is backed by robust data, ensuring informed decision-making. 

Matching Your WorkKeys Foundational Skills to Jobs: The Essential Coaching Tool

The “Matching Your WorkKeys Foundational Skills to Jobs” coaching tool is the cornerstone of our career navigation toolkit. This tool is designed to guide individuals through a comprehensive process using the ACT Occupational Profile Website to: 

  • Understand Their WorkKeys Scores: The tool helps individuals interpret their WorkKeys results. 
  • Match Skills to Jobs: By using the ACT Occupational Profile Website, individuals can find careers that align with their current skill levels, whether they are Best Matches, Exact Matches, or Better Jobs that require slightly higher skills. 
  • Set Career Goals: This tool encourages individuals to think about their skill development needs and identify next steps for training or job search efforts. 
  • Make Informed Career Decisions: By comparing their skills to job requirements, individuals can make data-driven decisions about their career paths and plan for future skill enhancement. 

Search for Career Choices Based on WorkKeys Scores

Use the ACT Occupational Profile Website to find career options that align with your learners’ WorkKeys scores. This powerful tool helps compare the skills individuals possess with those required for various jobs, guiding them to identify the best career paths and areas for skill development.

Users can:

  1. Search by Skill Levels: Individuals can input their WorkKeys scores to find jobs that match their skill levels. This feature highlights careers that are a good fit based on their current skills. 
  2. Search by Job Title: Enter specific job titles or keywords to find relevant job profiles. This can help individuals explore careers they are already interested in. 
  3. Search by Career Cluster: Use the career cluster search to explore broader career fields and discover new opportunities that might fit their interests and skills. 

Understanding the Results:

  1. Occupation Profiles: Each profile includes O*NET descriptions of occupations, required WorkKeys skill levels, and information about the median, minimum, and maximum skill levels needed.
  2. Skill Matching: The database categorizes occupations into best matches (skill requirements at or below current levels), exact matches (skill requirements equal to current levels), and better jobs (slightly higher skill requirements). 

ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) Digital Badges

WorkKeys NCRC digital badges offer a modern way to showcase skills and achievements. Through the ACT WorkKeys Digital Badging system, individuals can earn and display badges that represent their proficiency in specific workplace skills. These badges are easily shareable on social media, resumes, and job search platforms, allowing job seekers to stand out in the competitive job market. 

WorkKeys NCRC Skill Proficiency 

The WorkKeys NCRC is an industry-recognized credential that certifies an individual’s foundational workplace skills. The WorkKeys NCRC is awarded at four levels: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze, each representing a different level of skill proficiency.

Platinum

Platinum NCRC earners have validated their essential foundational workplace skills by scoring at the platinum level on ACT’s WorkKeys Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents assessments. Earners have demonstrated they have the foundational skills needed for 99% of the jobs identified in the Department of Labor’s O*NET database.

Individuals at the Platinum level can perform complex tasks, solve difficult problems, and interpret a wide variety of information. 

Gold

Gold NCRC earners have validated their essential foundational workplace skills by scoring at the gold level on ACT’s WorkKeys Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents assessments. Earners have demonstrated they have the foundational skills needed for 93% of the jobs identified in the Department of Labor’s O*NET database. 

Silver

Silver NCRC earners have validated their essential foundational workplace skills by scoring at the silver level on ACT's WorkKeys Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents assessments. Earners have demonstrated they have the foundational skills needed for 71% of the jobs identified in the Department of Labor’s O*NET database. 

Bronze

Bronze NCRC earners have validated their essential foundational workplace skills by scoring at the bronze level on ACT's WorkKeys Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents assessments.

Additional Resources

To further support your career navigation and development, we have compiled additional resources that can help learners and educators connect with relevant information, tools, and opportunities:

ACT Work Ready Communities (WRC) Website:

The ACT Work Ready Communities website is a valuable resource for identifying which employers in your area recognize the WorkKeys NCRC. It allows individuals and educators to see which counties are part of the Work Ready Communities initiative and which businesses value the WorkKeys NCRC as a critical measure of foundational skills.

Visit the WRC website to find your county, explore participating employers, and learn more about the benefits of being part of a Work Ready Community:

WorkKeys NCRC Award College Credit:

The WorkKeys NCRC isn’t just valuable in the workplace—it can also be a steppingstone to higher education. The WorkKeys NCRC is recognized by the American Council on Education (ACE) as a valid measure of college-level skills, and many colleges and universities offer college credit for high scores on the WorkKeys Assessments.

Educators can guide learners to institutions that recognize the WorkKeys NCRC for college credit, helping them save time and money on their educational journey. This resource is particularly valuable for adults returning to education or learners looking to get ahead in their college coursework.

Condition on Career Pathways Report:

The Condition on Career Pathways report provides insights into the alignment between educational outcomes and career readiness. It offers a detailed analysis of how well educational programs prepare learners for the demands of the workforce, highlighting key areas where improvements can be made.

This report is a useful tool for educators and policymakers looking to understand the broader landscape of career readiness. It helps identify gaps between education and employment, guiding efforts to better align curricula with industry needs.

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