Patrick County and the Dan River Region Collaborative (DRRC) are pleased to announce that Patrick County has been designated as a certified Work Ready Community (WRC). The nationally recognized designation by the Commonwealth of Virginia and American College Testing (ACT) will help Patrick County attract new businesses and jobs in addition to strengthening the skill sets of the region’s high scho
NEWS RELEASE
For more information, contact:For
Immediate Release
Allison H. MooreMarch 25, 2019
Manager, Public Relations & Communications
Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
allison.moore@ialr.org
434.766.6766
PATRICK COUNTY NAMED
CERTIFIED WORK READY COMMUNITY
Patrick County
and the Dan River Region Collaborative (DRRC) are pleased to announce that
Patrick County has been designated as a certified Work Ready Community (WRC).
The nationally recognized designation by the Commonwealth of Virginia and
American College Testing (ACT) will help Patrick County attract new businesses
and jobs in addition to strengthening the skill sets of the region’s high
school students, job seekers and incumbent workforce.
Partners like
the DRRC, the West Piedmont Workforce Development Board, Patrick Henry
Community College, Patrick County Public Schools and regional employers
supported Patrick County’s efforts to achieve this important national
certification. Some of the supportive regional employers include Ten Oaks,
Narrowflex, The Results Companies and Capewell Aerial Systems, LLC. To become
certified, a locality must achieve benchmarks in three areas of performance:
high school graduation rate, number of National Career Readiness Certificate
(NCRC) credentials attained in the locality and number of employers recognizing
the NCRC.
“Today’s
achievement by Patrick County demonstrates to our existing companies, as well
as prospective employers, that we have a trainable workforce with the
foundational skills to compete,” stated
Dr. Julie Brown, Program Director, Dan River Region Collaborative (DRCC).
“We have a significant number of localities in Southern Virginia that are
certified as Work Ready Communities with more announcements on the way. When we
work together as a region, great things are possible.”
The WRC effort
is a voluntary initiative guided by key community leaders – local elected
officials, economic development teams, business leaders, chambers of commerce,
educators and workforce development agencies. At the core of the ACT Work Ready
Communities initiative is the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate™ (ACT
NCRC®). Since January 2006, more than four million Americans have earned an ACT
NCRC®. Since June 2013, more than 7,810 citizens in Southern Virginia have
earned an NCRC, almost 40 percent of all NCRC recipients in the Commonwealth of
Virginia (20,547 as of February 2019).This national, portable credential
includes three essential workplace skill categories: applied math, workplace
documents, and graphic literacy.
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PATRICK COUNTY NAMED CERTIFIED WORK READY COMMUNITY,
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Four years
ago, Site Selection Magazine added the number of National Career
Readiness Certificates per 1,000 residents as one of five criteria used in its
tabulations for its annual Workforce Development Rankings. This year,
Virginia ranked as the top state in the Atlantic region, scoring ahead of
highly competitive states such as Florida, North Carolina, Maryland and
Delaware.
Companies are
seeing the benefit of the Work Ready Community effort which provides a system
to verify work readiness, matching the skill level of prospective workers to
the skill set required for a specific job. Improved recruitment, reductions in
new-hire turnover, and improvements in employee engagement are just a few of
the positive outcomes more than 390 companies across Southern Virginia are
experiencing. Such companies include Eastman Chemical, Owens-Illinois, Amthor
International, Blue Ridge Fiberboard, Drake Extrusion and Essel Propack.
“Patrick
County has been successful because local employers, such as Ten Oaks, The Results
Company, Narrowflex and Capewell Aerial Systems show their support by
recognizing the NCRC as a good indicator of workforce skills,” said Virginia
Delegate Charles Poindexter. “Employers across the region are also having their
jobs profiled so that they can match candidates, by skill level, to open
positions.”
“This
milestone achievement would not be possible without the dedication, support and
partnership of our regional businesses and employers as well as workforce
partners like the West Piedmont Workforce Development Board, Patrick Henry
Community College and Patrick County Public Schools,” said Rebecca Adcock,
Executive Director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to
serving existing companies, the Work Ready Community effort provides a
third-party validated, data-driven system for economic developers to talk about
the skill level of the region’s workforce. This effort supports the
Commonwealth’s goal of expanding the number of Virginians who hold industry
certifications that have value to employers. As the region considers further
workforce investments and expanding the number of citizens with in-demand
certifications, use of the National Career Readiness Certificate demonstrates
that Patrick County has a qualified and trainable workforce.
In addition to
Patrick County, Danville City, Henry County, Halifax County, Pittsylvania
County and Martinsville City have been certified as Work Ready Communities.
Other Commonwealth localities have launched their WRC initiatives and are on
target to reach WRC status in the future.
For more
information about the region’s WRC initiative, contact Dr. Julie Brown at Julie.brown@ialr.org or (434) 766-6711.