Vernon County Becomes 25th Missouri Certified Work-Ready Community

• March 07, 2016

With the certification Missouri now has 75 counties total that are actively participating in the CWRC initiative.

If you ask any company what the most important resource for success is they will most likely tell you it’s a skilled and qualified workforce.  But how do you know if a workforce has the skills you need before hiring them? In Missouri one of those ways comes via the Certified Work Ready Community (CWRC) program. Last week, Vernon County gained that certification.

In 2012, Missouri was selected as one of the first four states to participate in the CWRC initiative, and in 2013, Jasper County, Missouri, became the first county in the nation to achieve this designation.

CWRC is an American College Testing (ACT) designation program that recognizes successful efforts by community, as well as education and business leaders, working with the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, to strengthen workforce training and development in order to meet the economic development needs of communities.

The CWRC program provides members of the workforce with the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) a work-related skills credential providing objective documentation of an individual’s skills, and it’s accepted nationwide by many employers. To obtain an NCRC, people in and entering the workforce pipeline undergo testing in mathematics, reading and locating information, which then matches appropriate applicants to jobs based on skill level.

With the certification of Vernon County, Missouri now has 25 fully certified counties, and 75 counties total that are actively participating in the CWRC initiative. The communities include Jasper, Cape Girardeau, Franklin, and Washington, Mo in addition to many more.

The CWRC program is important because it provides potential employers with the ability to know exactly what foundational skills are available to them in a chosen area. This certainty can be a major factor in attracting new business to the state, and allows for economic development companies to find them the best possible community to fit their needs.

Participation in CWRC is voluntary and guided by key community leaders (local elected officials, economic development companies, etc.).  This helps to show businesses that the communities they are choosing are actively working to promote themselves and the workforces they have available.

For more information on CWRC please visit Missouri’s Work Ready Communities site at https://ded.mo.gov/getcertified/home.