9 Out of 10 Greenville County Schools 11th Graders Are “Work Ready”
First Year of ACT WorkKeys for SC Students
Nine out of ten of last school year’s almost 5,000 Greenville County high school juniors are considered “work ready” according to ACT WorkKeys, a new state assessment administered for the first time in spring 2015.
WorkKeys, designed to measure essential workforce skills, consists of three sections: Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information. The test replaced the high school exit exam. It is a more effective measure of career readiness, according to Dr. Jason McCreary, Greenville County School Director of Accountability and Quality Assurance. McCreary says, “WorkKeys measures “real-world” job skills, providing results that are immediately portable to the workplace. “
Students earn a National Career Readiness Certificate based on their score. Students passing WorkKeys earn a bronze, silver, gold or platinum certificate. In all, 89.2 percent of GCS students earned a bronze certificate or higher. GCS students were awarded certificates as follows:
- Bronze: 20.9 percent (scores of level three or higher on all exams)
- Silver: 40.3 percent (scores of level four or higher on all exams)
- Gold: 27.1 percent (scores of level five or higher on all exams)
- Platinum: 0.9 percent (scores of level six or higher on all exams)
The certificate can assist students with finding part-time or summer jobs, internships and employment. In South Carolina over 1,400 employers recognize the certificate.