WorkKeys ®
WorkKeys®, a product of ACT, Inc. (formerly American College Testing), is a national assessment designed to improve the quality of America's workforce. Over 6000 students in all nine of the school districts in the Midlands have been assessed in the areas of Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information. Midlands Technical College's Continuing Education Division serves as a service delivery center for WorkKeys. For more information click here or contact Midlands Technical College. Organizations currently using WorkKeys in the Midlands
WorkKeys® Case Studies (2009)
In 2007, The South Carolina Department of Commerce awarded the Midlands Education and Business Alliance (MEBA) a two-year grant to implement the Strengthening Education, Workforce and Economic Development (SEWED) project to increase career awareness, knowledge of and use of WorkKeys and increase knowledge of services and access points to OneStop Career Centers. To promote these outcomes, MEBA has been using the grant money to: boost knowledge of OneStop Career Center services, create a research model focused on the utilization of WorkKeys within selected companies and improve the knowledge of educators, students and adult workers regarding continuing education opportunities, WorkKeys and OneStop Career Center services.
One component of the MEBA's SEWED project was to research WorkKeys usage and conduct outreach in the midlands business community to foster adoption of WorkKeys. WorkKeys is a job skills assessment system designed to measure real-world skills. It serves to connect work skills, training and testing for education and employers and is the basis for the National Career Readiness Certificate. For employers, WorkKeys offers a way to test and measure job skills in order to make comparison between a person's skill levels and the job requirements. The stated goal was to expose and expand services to MEBA business alliance members as it relates to their knowledge and use of WorkKeys.
KeyTrain
KeyTrain is a computer-based self-guided series of lessons with interactive exercises designed to add effective WorkKeys® training. Midlands Education and Business Alliance provided each district KeyTrain software and KeyTrain training to teachers.
For more information click here.