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CareerReady! Celebrates 100th
Graduating Class!
CareerReady!,
a workplace skills
class based on WorkKeys, has helped students
earn Career Readiness Certificates, train for the
workplace, and prepare to enter occupational career
training over several years. Now the program,
designed and offered by York Technical College in
Rock Hill, SC, has graduated its 100th
class marking a significant milestone in helping to
create a ready workforce.
The success of
CareerReady! has not been an accident. The
program has been measured, tweaked, revised and
measured again in order to ensure that students get
relevant skills to enter the workplace. The staff
at York Technical College believes there are several
reasons for the success of
CareerReady!
Successful
Partnerships
CareerReady!
works closely with Catawba-Wateree Workforce
Investment Board programs, with adult education, and
with local non-profit organizations to take
advantage of a wide referral network. The Workforce
Development Office, WIA-Intensive Services Division,
and each of the local OneStop Centers are licensed
to provide KeyTrain remediation; all locations have
been recently converted to the Internet-based
version to provide seamless transfer between
providers.
Standardized Format
CareerReady!
uses a combination of classroom instruction and
independent study. This format provides the
traditional one-on-one support and invaluable
instructor feedback found within the classroom with
the freedom to work independently. Students’
individual work on KeyTrain is performed under
instructor supervision for two hours each day,
following three hours of classroom participation.
Student workbooks include many examples from the
KeyTrain reproducible materials.
The entire 100-hour
program includes 12-hours of computer and KeyTrain
orientation, 24 hours in each of the three
skill areas (Reading, Math, Locating Information)
and 16 hours of behavioral skills training aimed at
easing the transition into the workplace and/or
school.
Skill-Progression
Methodology
CareerReady!
recently built a skill-progression model into its
program to enable students above or below the
targeted classroom goal to work independently. When
the program first started, students who scored 5 or
above in Reading and Math, and 4 or above in
Locating Information were exempted from class,
effectively losing the opportunity to increase
their scores. To provide an opportunity for
everyone to improve, regardless of
pre-assessment scores, the college created a
WorkKeys Open Lab.
Open Lab students
have a 3-hour day as opposed to the 5-hour day for
traditional CareerReady! students. These lab
students are encouraged to improve their scores in
the three NCRC areas, but may also use the time to
strengthen other skills, such as Observation -- a
skill area in which profilers are seeing an
increased need.
Instructor and
Student Accountability
All instructors are
thoroughly trained on KeyTrain and facilitate both
the two-hour KeyTrain labs which are a part of the
five-hour CareerReady! day as well as Open
Labs. Instructors are encouraged to follow student
progress via KeyTrain reporting tools.
Students are also able to see progress via
individual student reports.
Flexibility
Local employers often
come to York Technical College’s Institute for
Workforce Development seeking help for employees
who, due to low basic skill levels, are unable to
keep up with the demands of new processes and
technologies. Most often, these employees are
provided a combination of tutoring and KeyTrain
independent study. Once again, KeyTrain’s ability
to monitor time and progress enables the instructor
to provide tutoring as needed, allows documentation
of hours spent (for both CEUs and accountability to
the sponsoring employer), and provides the
flexibility and privacy needed by employees.
For additional
information contact Brenda Odom at
bodom@yorktech.com
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