Kathy Zavala, Executive Director, Stearns-Benton Employment & Training Council

For employers, choosing a future employee from a stack of resumes can feel like a trip to the casino, placing a tall stack of chips on a diploma or past experience and then spinning the wheel. Losing the bet can set a business back for months or even years.

Before the recession, a shallow labor pool meant that businesses bore the risk involved in hiring decisions. “In the past, we just interviewed people and off to work they went,” said George Wilkes, a vice president and general manager at printing giant Quad Graphics in St. Cloud. “We didn’t have great ways of testing them to say they would be successful in that position or in a promoted position.”

Today,more and more companies are looking for individuals with specific skill sets and don’t want to take hiring chances. Job seekers want to be able to prove their competency so that they can rise to the top of callback lists.

“The belief in the workforce development field is that we’re training people for careers and technologies that don’t even exist yet,” said Kathy Zavala, executive director of the Stearns-Benton Employment & Training Council. “That means we have to invest time in teaching people how to learn, lead and solve problems instead of just showing them how to operate a single machine that might be obsolete in a few years.”

	Barb Chaffee  |  Central Minnesota Jobs & Training Services CEO

That’s why a new accreditation, called the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), is gaining traction with employers across the country, including E. & J. Gallo Winery, BMW and Subaru. Created by testing behemoth ACT, Inc., the certificate program offers workers—from custodians to aerospace engineers—an opportunity to prove that they possess essential skills that transcend industries.

The NCRC assesses three skills that are considered crucial to today’s job market: Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information. Workers may choose to take proctored examinations to measure their proficiencies in these skills. They can earn nationally recognized certificates from bronze to platinum, which are ranked for virtually every job in the U.S.

“This is a way to identify the people with those skills and to bridge the gap between unemployment and the openings that do exist,” said Katie Wacker, media relations representative for ACT.

	Dan Wenner  |  Rural Minnesota CEP director

NCRC can be used in hiring for virtually any position, from CEO to an entry-level job in computer programming, construction or retail. The assessments are particularly useful for the growing population of middleaged job-seekers who may not have the flexibility to go back to school and obtain a new skill set. “We can make that retraining less expensive and quicker for people, as well as more focused on the skills needed in the workforce,” said Craig Nathan operations manager of RMCEP’s BrainerdWorkForce Center.

As the NCRC gained steam in other parts of the country—Michigan and Alaska have taken steps to test all high school juniors—a recent $50,000 grant from the Initiative Foundation to Stearns Benton Employment and Training Council, Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program, and Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services has set the stage for NCRC to improve hiring in central Minnesota.

Applied Mathematics

	BY THE NUMBERS: Electrical engineer Tim Weir uses algebraic equations, geometry and advanced computation skills in his work at Stearns Electric.

From balancing a cash register to complex engineering, most jobs involve numbers and calculations.

“Almost every job in our company requires some level of math skills,” said Dave Gruenes, district manager of Stearns Electric Association in Melrose, “whether you’re taking payments, doing accounting, or measuring for a new service installation.”

NCRC’s Applied Mathematics assessment tests workers on mathematical reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving techniques that are encountered in the workplace.

The lowest level math questions test individuals on problems like converting hours to minutes and changing percentages. The next level assesses multiplication of negative numbers and calculating percent discounts or markups. The most advanced level requires job seekers to find the areas of basic shapes and choose the best financial deal from several choices.

Although the most advanced math skills might not be required of everyone working for Stearns Electric, electrical engineer TimWeir is their residentmath whiz. “When you get into the engineering, themath gets quite complex. You’re using algebraic equations, geometry and beyond,” said Gruenes. “Employees like Tim are responsible for our poles, wires, transformers, and the equipment placed outside homes and business. They have to forecast rates, load factors, and look at motor sizes and translate it into electrical uses.”

The exam problems are computations all of us encounter in everyday life. Test-takers are allowed calculators and given formula sheets with conversions such as inches to feet or ounces to cups. The test emphasizes the importance of problem solving skills over memorization or random knowledge.

Locating Information

FACT FINDERS: Highly skilled press operators at Range Printing in Brainerd need to be able to locate information quickly to keep equipment running at peak performance.

Whether it’s an invoice or pay stub, the documents and instructions encountered in the working world require a certain aptitude to find relevant information. “Workers need to be able to quickly locate information and apply it to develop solutions for employers and customers,” said Nathan.

At Quad Graphics in St. Cloud, the ability to locate information is important for printing press operators. When the equipment fails or requires adjustments, press operators are expected to be able to find the information required to fix the issue.

“If you are running one of our presses in that First Operator Position, you need to take a set of job instructions and know what to do,” said Wilkes. “When you’re troubleshooting on a press, you have to be able to make deductions about what the problem is.”Whether it is in a print manual or on a computer screen, print industry employees are required to know where and how to find the necessary information to get the machine up and running.

The Locating Information assessment tests people on their abilities to understand workplace graphics, including purchase orders. Test takers are asked to find information within the graphic or place the correct information into the graphic. As the test gets more difficult, questions compare information on multiple graphics and require the ability to sort through distracting facts and figures.

At Range Printing in Brainerd, President Shawn Sundquist said that highly skilled press operators are under pressure to keep equipment operational and running at peak performance. Every mechanical part of a printing press must be finely tuned to print tiny dots of ink with near-microscopic precision. Extended downtime often results in lost revenue or missed deadlines.

“There is no way for any employee to immediately know the answer to every potential problem, but they have to know how to find it,” Sundquist added. “That’s the prized skill that’s very hard to discern in a job interview.”

Reading for Information

	VITAL SIGNS: Nurse Joanie Miller uses her reading skills to accurately administer medication, maintain patient charts and follow procedures.

From teaching to bartending to life-or-death situations, reading for information is a necessary workplace skill.

“Our nurses’ entire days are spent reading information, said Dave Waage, director of employment at CentraCare Health System. “They access and update constantly changing data, document charts, interact with patients, and educate patients. It’s a highly critical skill.”

The Reading for Information assessment presents test-takers with documents such as memos, letters, directions, and bulletins to determine the level of skill an individual uses when examining a written text.

Joanie Miller, a nurse at the CentraCare Heath System–Long Prairie, is charged with processing information that comes her way on a daily basis. “Reading for information is important when it comes to medications, charts, policies, and procedures,” said Waage. “Their whole job revolves around patient care and the flow of information both to and from patients and to and from providers. They are the eyes and ears of the patients.”

Moving Forward

	Craig Nathan | Operations Manager, RMCEP's Brainerd Workforce Center

While the WorkForce centers agree that NCRC testing isn’t the only way to place the right people in the right positions, it’s an effective tool that will hopefully get people back to work. “It’s one piece of data for employers to look at,” said Kathy Zavala, executive director of SBETC. “When someone applies to a job and presents this certificate, the employer knows this person knows how to learn and has an essential set of skills.”

The National Manufacturers Association and the National Center for Construction Education and Research are also embracing the NCRC. Both organizations have endorsed the assessments in an effort to identify a more qualified workforce and to help others who have fallen behind get up to speed. For the first time, employers have a credential that means the same thing across the U.S.

“It’s hard to worry about the other elements of a healthy community when so many people aren’t working,” said Initiative Foundation senior program manager, Don Hickman.

“Our overall intention was to support a tool that will assist unemployed workers to either market the skills they have or identify the skills they need to improve,” said Hickman. “The hope in 2011 is that employers take a second look at applicants with NCRC certificates and recognize that these workers give them the best chance to grow their businesses.” IQ

For more information, contact: www.positivelyminnesota.com/ JobSeekers/WorkForce_Centers