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The
Federal Stimulus Stimulates NCRC
Activities for Many States!
Using ARRA funds for KeyTrain®, WorkKeys®
and the NCRC makes for a winning
combination for state's Reemployment Services
The
workforce system plays a vital role in helping unemployed workers
quickly find work, and in helping employers find workers when they are
ready to hire. Now with the help of American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, the system is able to expand programs to get their clients
back to work even more efficiently and effectively.
 As
the Federal stimulus funds reached the states, workforce officials worked
to design programs that would aid their clients. While re-employment
services (RES) have existed for years, the new funding allowed states to
ramp up their services under this important program. States like West
Virginia, Oklahoma, Alaska and Wisconsin, chose to integrate WorkKeys,
the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), and KeyTrain as a part
of what they offer.
Steve Dailey, Workforce West Virginia stated “the integration of
WorkKeys, the CRC and KeyTrain allows us to develop skills and certify
them so we are contributing to the workforce of West Virginia in a more
positive way. We expect great results from this effort.” Brian
Solomon, Director of Wisconsin Job Service, is excited about the
initiative. “KeyTrain, WorkKeys, and the NCRC will really benefit
jobseekers in their job search. This is a significant new tool in the
toolbox.”
>>FULL
ARTICLE>>
Credit Recovery Program Gives Hard-Working Students a Second Chance in
Colorado
If you ask Wendy Crank, School Counselor at Norwood Public Schools, why
she likes their credit recovery program, she’ll tell you that it
provides a second chance for students who are short of credits for
various reasons. She’ll also let you know that if they don’t work hard
in the program, they won’t get a third chance.
“Our
program provides a safety net for hard working students. If students
don’t put the effort into our program, we know it’s their personal
choice and not the school system letting them slip through the cracks”
Crank says.
The
program to which she refers is the Key Performance Academy at Norwood
Public Schools R2-JT in Norwood, CO. Among other important components,
the program uses KeyTrain® and WorkKeys® to help students earn a
“performance diploma” – one that shows the students can perform at the
levels of a high school graduate.
Read
the full article to see how Norwood realized a 100% ROI on KeyTrain
in this program...
>>FULL
ARTICLE>>
Career Ready 101™ Hits the Mark with Financial Literacy Component
According to the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy,
among others, the average student who graduates from high school lacks
basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. Many are
unable to balance a checkbook
 and most simply have no insight into the
basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and
investing. Financial illiteracy has become a national issue. And
fixing this has become a national concern.
The President’s Advisory Council on
Financial Literacy has set the stage for a national movement in creating
a financially literate America – and KeyTrain’s new Career Ready 101 is
poised to help high schools and workforce development agencies be a key
force in this endeavor by providing instruction in all areas recommended
by the Council.
>>FULL ARTICLE>>
Innovation in Michigan: Featuring
Oakland County Schools
The efforts in Michigan involving WorkKeys, the National Career
Readiness Certificate (NCRC), and KeyTrain are vast, traversing all key
sectors from education to economic development. Details of many of the
accomplishments and activity can be seen at
www.michigancrc.org
- the website for the Michigan NCRC Advocates.
In light of the action occurring in education reform via
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) throughout the
country, education departments are searching for innovation on how to
achieve some of these goals. Michigan as a state is making moves in this
arena and none stronger than Oakland County Schools.
Michigan adopted WorkKeys as part of its high school exit exam – the
Michigan Merit Exam (MME) – in 2007. Currently, as part of the MME all
juniors take the three WorkKeys assessments required for the NCRC:
Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Locating Information
which gives students the chance to exit high school with a diploma and
the NCRC. At the same time hundreds of employers across the state have
been engaged to recognize, request or require the NCRC for their
positions. Most recently the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic
Growth (DeLEG) issued policy requiring the state workforce agencies
(called Michigan Works!) to adopt WorkKeys testing for the NCRC.
As
these developments advanced, Oakland County Schools recognized the
momentum building around the NCRC in the state and embraced the
opportunity to integrate appropriate learning tools into their
processes. With a focus on the MME and Michigan standards, they took a
step back and conducted focus groups and pilot programs to help them
begin to build a three year plan. A primary goal was to require an
Educational Development Plan (EDP) for each student that looked at the
continuity of experiences from grades 7-12 and continuing through
post-secondary.
>>FULL ARTICLE>>
McCrabb Scholarship Awarded in
Oklahoma
Each year, KeyTrain is proud to sponsor the Hugh
McCrabb Scholarship. The Scholarship honors the late Hugh McCrabb for
his pioneering work in making the Career Readiness Certificate a reality
in Oklahoma and helping to increase workplace skills for thousands of
Oklahomans. Funded and implemented by Thinking Media/KeyTrain, the award
covers one full year’s tuition at an Oklahoma Technology Center and any
costs for testing and printing of an Oklahoma Career Readiness
Certificate.
The 2009-10 Scholarship was awarded to Teresa
Jennings, a nursing student at Western Technology Center in Burns Flat.
As a single mother of two teenage boys, Jennings wants to obtain a
practical nursing license and then become a registered nurse to build a
better life for her boys and herself.
>>ARTICLE
WITH PICTURE>>
Meet the KeyTrain
Staff: Mary Molusky
Mary Molusky joined Thinking Media after
working fifteen years in the South Carolina Technical College system in
training and workforce development. She was involved in successfully
implementing WorkKeys in secondary education, higher education and
business and industry.
Mary served as a founding member and
chair of the annual southeastern WorkKeys conference and the South
Carolina WorkKeys Users Group.
Under Mary's leadership, her WorkKeys
service center conducted over 350 profiles. Mary chaired the South
Carolina Technical College profiling standards committee designing
standard profile report for all profilers at the 16 technical colleges.
She was a profiler for ten years adding to her exceptional experience.
>>FULL ARTICLE>>
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