Randolph County Missouri Earns Certified Work Ready Status

• July 26, 2016

Missouri’s Randolph County is the latest Missouri county to earn the designation as a Certified Work Ready Community (CWRC). CWRC is an American College Testing (ACT) designation program that recognizes successful efforts by community, 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 Certified Workforce Ready initiative will help communities like Randolph County attract and train the skilled workers needed to meet the demands of our growing economy,” Gov. Nixon said.  “I congratulate the local economic development and education leaders here in Randolph County on earning this important designation.”

The CWRC program provides members of the workforce with the National Career Readiness Certificate, a work-related skills credential providing objective documentation of an individual’s skills that is accepted nationwide by many employers. ACT has awarded more than 77,000 National Career Readiness Certificates to workers in Missouri, including more than 6,445 certificates to Missouri veterans.

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

Jasper County, Missouri was named the first Certified Work Ready Community in the nation back in 2012, and Missouri now has 78 counties that are actively participating in the Certified Work Ready Community initiative and 34 fully certified counties.