With the gap that exists between the skills required in today's workplace and those exhibited by potential and incumbent employees, employers have trouble finding and hiring people with fundamental, trainable skills. Businesses need new hires who can achieve job proficiency quickly in order to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive global economy.
Job applicants with a Georgia Work Ready Certificate arrive with those skills critical to job success, enabling employers to cut training costs and reduce turnover.
What is the Georgia Work Ready Certificate Program
The Georgia Work Ready Assessment Program is a complete solution for making quick comparisons between a person's skill levels and the job requirements, providing a portable skills credential, the Georgia Work Ready Certificate, which is easily and universally understood and valued by employers and certificate recipients.
The Georgia Work Ready assessment is available to all Georgians at no cost.
Schedule of Georgia Work Ready Assessment
Benefits of Using the Georgia Work Ready Certificate Program
Employers can simplify making reliable decisions about hiring, training, and program development needs by matching job profile information with assessment scores of Georgia Work Ready Certified potential and incumbent employees.
Hundreds of thousands of WorkKeys assessments are administered each year to help individuals assess their current skill levels and to determine how improving their skills can lead to better-paying jobs. Students, businesses, and organizations use the WorkKeys tests to improve skill levels and strengthen communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.
Companies that use the Georgia Work Ready Certificate program to assess their incoming and current workforce can achieve substantial benefits, including:
- Improved employee selection and advancement procedures
- Reduced overtime
- Reduced turnover
- Increased productivity
- Fewer legal challenges to hiring processes
- Higher employee morale
To earn the certificate, job seekers must complete the assessments.
Georgia Work Ready Assessments
Georgia Work Ready uses WorkKeys assessments to measure both the work characteristic and foundational skills of a job applicant or incumbent employee.
1. Work Characteristic Skills Assessment (Coming Summer 2007)
Georgia's Work Ready Certificate, in the near future, will include taking the Work Characteristic Assessment, a personal skills assessment designed to measure the full potential of individuals. The tool listed below will be used for this assessment after a successful demonstration pilot.
- Talent
Predict dependability, assertiveness, and emotional stability.
2. Foundation Skills Assessment
The Georgia Work Ready program uses WorkKeys foundational skills assessments to measure cognitive abilities in Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information, and Locating Information, providing reliable, relevant information about workplace skill levels.
Foundational skills assessments measure different applied job skills in the areas of communication, problem solving, and communication.
- Applied Mathmatics
In the United States, over 75% of the most rapidly growing jobs demand education beyond high school, often including a strong background in math and science.
The WorkKeys Applied Mathematics assessment helps current and potential employees measure the math skills they have against those the workplace requires. This assessment measures the skill people use when they apply mathematical reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving techniques to work-related problems. The test questions require the examinee to set up and solve the types of problems and do the types of calculations that actually occur in the workplace. This test is designed to be taken with a calculator. A formula sheet that includes all formulas required for the assessment is provided. While individuals may use calculators and conversion tables to help with the problems, they still need to use math skills to think them through. More on the Applied Mathematics Assessment here.
- Locating Information
A recent survey found that nearly 25% of hourly employees could not read and translate drawings, diagrams, and flow charts. The ability to locate, interpret, and use information from workplace graphics (charts, graphs, tables, forms, floor plans, maps, instrument gauges) is a basic skill required in today's workforce.
The WorkKeys Locating Information test measures the skill people use when they work with workplace graphics. Examinees are asked to find information in a graphic or insert information into a graphic. They also must compare, summarize, and analyze information found in related graphics. More on the Locating Information assessment here.
- Reading for Information
Today's workplace increasingly requires reading skills, and often workplace communications are not necessarily well-written or targeted to the appropriate audience.
The WorkKeys Reading for Information test focuses on written materials that are used by employees in the workplace and measures the skill people use when they read and use written text in order to do a job. The written texts include memos, letters, directions, signs, notices, bulletins, policies, and regulations. More on the Reading for Information assessment here.
Assessment Levels
These tests include problems at several levels of difficulty. Level 3 is the least complex and Level 6 or 7 is the most complex. The levels build on each other, each incorporating the skills assessed at the preceding levels. For example, Level 5 includes the skills used at Levels 3, 4, and 5. The complexity may also increase as the quantity and/or density of the information increases.
Assessment |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
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Applied Mathematics |
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x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
Locating Information |
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x |
x |
x |
x |
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Reading for Information |
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x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
Individuals with sufficient scores on three WorkKeys assessments - Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information, and Locating Information - will qualify for a certificate.
Certificate |
WorkKeys Scores |
Platinum |
6’s and above |
Gold |
5’s and above |
Silver |
4’s and above |
Bronze |
3’s and above |
- Bronze Level–An individual achieving this level of certification possesses core employability skills for approximately 30% of the jobs profiled by WorkKeys in these skill areas.
- Silver Level - An individual achieving this level of certification possesses core employability skills for approximately 65% of the jobs profiled by WorkKeys in these skill areas.
- Gold Level - An individual achieving this level of certification possesses core employability skills for approximately 85% of the jobs profiled by WorkKeys in these skill areas.
- Platinum Level - An individual achieving this level of certification possesses core employability skills for approximately 95% of the jobs profiled by WorkKeys in these skill areas.
Each 8.5 x 11 includes an individual's employability portfolio on the back, listing all foundational and performance skills they have mastered. Each recipient will receive a certificate by mail, numbered for security and tracking purposes.
View a sample certificate here
