|
Green Jobs, the NCRC and Career Ready 101:
Creating a skill foundation for employee retention and success
The green jobs initiative promises great impact on the entire nation. It promotes the health of our economy in myriad ways, providing important jobs for our citizens, acting for the environment, and reducing dependence on non-renewable energy sources. The importance of the initiative underscores the need to avoid pitfalls and to prepare the program and the participants for long-term success.
What are Green Jobs and Why are they Important?
Green jobs are primarily jobs that already exist today that have been repurposed for green industries. For example, sheet metal worker is a green job if its purpose is to create towers for wind energy generation. Green jobs have other important characteristics that make them very important to our nation’s economic situation. Because they are primarily local jobs, they are difficult to outsource. They also tend to be long-term, career track jobs that provide a living wage.
The importance of the Green Jobs initiative underscores the need to avoid pitfalls of other high-growth situations like high employee turnover, elevated training costs, and high rates of employee errors. These are the same issues that the NCRC and Career Ready 101 are addressing for businesses, colleges, secondary education, and workforce development agencies across the country.
Many states have received ARRA funding for Green Jobs programs...Thinking Media can you help you understand your opportunities and how the NCRC and Career Ready 101 can help your programs succeed. Call us at 877-842-6205 or email us at info@keytrain.com for more information.
>>FULL
ARTICLE>>
Increasing Scores on the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) with KeyTrain Integration
The Prairie State Achievement Exam is given to all high school juniors in Illinois. Among other components, it includes WorkKeys® Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and the ACT college entrance exam.
Downers Grove South High School, in Downers Grove, Illinois, took a very deliberate approach to using KeyTrain for improving PSAE scores in their school. Obtaining KeyTrain and making it available to all students was just the first step in a program designed to drive PSAE scores up. Their process for an implementation that was focused on producing real results was in three steps:
- Training
- Implementation
- Effectiveness (measurement)
Training and the importance of increasing WorkKeys scores
First, they felt it vital to train all key personnel about the KeyTrain program and the importance of improving PSAE scores. In an all-inclusive approach, the school trained their personnel from English & Communications, Mathematics, Special Services, Applied Arts and Technology, and ACT Preparation departments. While instruction about how to use KeyTrain was provided, a key component of the training was simply about the importance of increasing WorkKeys scores on the PSAE. Chris Mazur, Reading Specialist at Downers Grove South, notes the impact that an increase in WorkKeys score can have. “An increase in one level can have a profound effect – it can very quickly move a student’s PSAE score from the below standard category to the meets standard category” says Mazur.
>>FULL
ARTICLE>>
Record Numbers Turn Out for Michigan NCRC Conference
The 2009 Michigan NCRC Conference was held in Lansing, MI on November 16th and 17th and had a record showing. More than 300 people from 11 states gathered to share best practices, learn more about WorkKeys® and the National Career Readiness Certificate, and to get updates on the Michigan NCRC program. The two-day event included a full program with top-notch Keynote speakers and 30 break-out sessions that covered a range of topics from NCRC case studies to implementation practices for KeyTrain® and WorkKeys.
Keynote speaker Andy Levin, Chief Workforce Officer for the State of Michigan, gave a clear picture of the state’s challenges and laid out some lofty goals for the Michigan National Career Readiness Certificate. Dr. Keith Bird, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, discussed the role of community colleges and the NCRC in today’s global marketplace. From ACT, Inc.’s Workforce Development Division, President and COO, Martin Scaglione, gave a national outlook and update on the NCRC and its role in our country’s workforce and education issues.
>>FULL ARTICLE>>
Philadelphia Area Determined to Build a Strong Workforce
More than 100 people representing 25 organizations attended “Building A Strong Regional Workforce” on December 10, 2009, an event hosted by the Community College of Philadelphia. Like many cities across the country, Philadelphia is taking a close look at its regional workforce, taking action to improve skills, and planning appropriately for the future of their region. A recent report indicated that more than half of Philadelphia's working-age adults, about 550,000 people, cannot handle the basic arithmetic and reading necessary to succeed in the majority of jobs in the city, so building a strong regional workforce is a very high priority to the region.
The event included speakers with expertise in regional and national workforce development and skill building. Featured speakers included:
- Fred Dedrick, Deputy Secretary Workforce Development; PA Dept. of Labor & Industry
- John Nelson, Regional Manager, WorkKeys
- Mary Molusky, Director of Outreach, KeyTrain
- Nicole DiGiulio, Training & Development Manager; Philadelphia Water Dept.
>>FULL ARTICLE>>
West Virginia Celebrates Governor's Career Readiness Program
A press conference was held on Tuesday Dec 1, 2009 at the West Virginia State Capital to celebrate the success of the Governor's WorkKeys Career Readiness program, a state certificate program based on WorkKeys. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin expressed his gratitude over the success the state has had in rolling out this initiative. The governor announced that 10,306 WorkKeys certificates have been issued since October 2008.
Russel Fry Director of Workforce also spoke about the progress the state has made in preparing the workforce.
During the press conference the governor recognized several state officials as well the state's partnership with KeyTrain and WorkKeys. KeyTrain's National Sales Director - Stan Brodka (pictured behind the governor) was invited to this event. Three certificate holders were also present at the press conference and had an opportunity to shake hands with the governor
KeyTrain has a statewide contract with all of the WorKforce Investment regions and adult Education locations.
Meet the KeyTrain
Staff: Stan Brodka
Stan Brodka has been a part of the KeyTrain team for over 2 years. Before joining KeyTrain, Stan worked with enterprise resource planning software for manufacturing companies. Early in his career Stan worked for IBM in their mid-range systems department.
While his title is National Sales Director, he has also led numerous statewide implementations of KeyTrain. Over the past few months Stan has spent a significant amount of time conducting training sessions in West Virginia, Alabama and Virginia where KeyTrain has state contracts. Stan also spent several weeks in Wisconsin providing training as a part of their recent statewide contract. He has provided implementation resources to those engaged in this effort.
Stan conducts a weekly webcast of KeyTrain every Tuesday at 10:00AM Eastern (see the left column of this page to sign up). Stan is available to help each client determine the best avenue for their adoption of KeyTrain. Stan Brodka has an economics degree from Gettysburg College. For information on how you can adopt KeyTrain or expand your licenses contact Stan at stan@keytrain.com.
|
