Governor’s initiative aimed at providing employees trained and ready
At the direction of Gov. Doug Ducey, his Office of Economic Opportunity has partnered with ARIZONA@WORK to establish an Arizona Career Readiness Credential that will assure employers who have signed up that their potential employees come equipped with skills needed for the job.
“Governor Ducey isn’t stopping at the successes he’s already had in reducing regulations on small-business owners. He’s moving full steam ahead on initiatives beneficial for Main Street entrepreneurs whom he has a fundamental appreciation for as the engine of the Arizona economy,” said Farrell Quinlan, Arizona state director for NFIB.
“Our members are often skeptical of government programs aimed at ‘helping’ the private sector because the government has a very difficult time understanding how the private sector works and what helps and what hurts. This initiative comes from a successful businessman who knows when a government can help and when it can hinder. And, it’s coming at the perfect time, because job-creation plans among small-business owners are at a historic high, according to NFIB’s latest Jobs Report, which, commensurately, creates a difficulty in finding qualified workers. Kudos to the governor for kick-starting the Arizona Career Readiness Credential. I encourage all our members to explore it.”
From the Arizona Career Readiness Credential website:
“Employers told us for years that their greatest talent sourcing difficulties lay in the basic academic and employability skills that we would like to be able to assume all job candidates have.
- The basic academic skills that are relevant to so many high-value jobs in Arizona include applied mathematics; the ability to understand workplace texts like memos, handbooks and MSDS; and the ability to understand and interpret workplace graphics and data like blueprints, flowcharts and order forms.
- The personal and interpersonal skills we identified include communication skills, resilience, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and collaboration, attitude, dependability and time management.
“The Arizona Career Readiness Credential is earned by validating these foundational skills that Arizona employers value most. Jobs seekers who hold this credential have passed three high stakes, proctored assessments in the applied academic areas, plus a ‘situational judgement’ assessment that validates their understanding of employability skills and how they impact an employer.”
Click the graphic below to visit the website.
