The Career Readiness Certificate Consortium

In January 2004, with leadership from Virginia, seven states (TN, WV, KY, DC, MD, NC and VA) formed the Career Readiness Certificate Consortium (Consortium). No state was asked to contribute funds or in any way commit resources to the effort. The idea of a Consortium was conceived to provide a support mechanism for and practical help to all states, particularly for those just embarking on the project.

The Consortium was comprised of states in very different stages of development of a portable skills credential based on WorkKeys® assessments. For example, Kentucky had been issuing its own Kentucky Employability Certificate for a year, Virginia was quickly advancing to deployment of its Career Readiness Certificate, and Maryland and DC were only just beginning to look at WorkKeys® scores as the language of skill sets. All other states fell somewhere in between.

By the end of 2004, another 5 states had asked to join the Consortium, and this interest and enthusiasm continued into 2005. At a meeting of the Consortium in May 2007, 14 states were represented, and it has grown tremendously since then.

Since March 2007, the Consortium has been administratively supported by the National Organization for Career Credentialing (www.nationalocc.org)

In September 2006, ACT™ announced a national CRC initiative. This ACT certificate is IDENTICAL to all other CRCs. It is not more transportable or of a higher level.

It is important to note that it is NOT necessary to be affiliated with ACT in order to issue CRC's in your state or organization. Several organizations and states (e.g. the Commonwealth of Virginia) continue to issue their own CRCs and are unaffiliated with ACT. Please contact the NOCC office for more details.

In September 2006, The CRC Handbook: Implementing the Career Readiness Certificate was released across the country. An updated and expanded second edition is available at no charge from the NOCC site (www.nationalOCC.org/resources).

The table below shows the approximate number of CRC's issued as of February 7, 2016.

STATE	TOTAL	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM
AK	41,579	10,194	23,226	8,010	149
AL	58,409	14,389	33,121	10,698	201
AR	64,815	11,289	38,343	15,069	114
AZ	5,763	1,100	3,484	1,156	23
CA	9,162	2,266	5,140	1,688	68
CO	1,217	261	796	155	5
CT	2,386	624	1,432	328	2
DE	234	33	141	60
FL	114,044	28,472	64,271	21,083	218
GA	332,210	86,340	182,807	61,082	1,981
HI	412	172	203	37
IA	75,824	15,224	42,812	17,364	424
ID	90	21	51	27
IL	149,733	34,492	77,396	36,100	1,745
IN	114,670	21,777	68,122	24,227	544
KS	34,620	5872	19,238	9189	321
KY	113,408	21,624	70,815	20,534	435
LA	50,801	15,772	27,873	6,982	174
MA	531	144	295	91	1
MD	430	99	244	85	2
ME	81	9	46	26
MI	506,677	120,467	257,990	124,914	3,346
MN	22,474	3,796	12,259	6,250	169
MO	66,993	13,264	38,826	14,659	244
MS	28, 286	8,321	15,439	4,415	111
MT	1,572	339	894	328	11
NC	287,881	66,521	168,508	52,054	798
ND	568	134	322	112
NE	881	204	490	183	4
NH	5,071	1,141	2,977	937	16
NJ	592	218	305	69
NM	24,709	6,817	13,719	4,114	59
NV	3,981	687	2,152	1,122	20
NY	1,474	332	886	248	8
OH	129,157	20,589	79,949	28,167	452
OK	124,981	27,340	72,881	24,204	556
OR	50,166	6,804	26,981	15,844	537
PA	25,081	3,621	14,724	6,611	125
RI	772	269	416	86	1
SC	300,932	90,877	163,811	45,507	737
SD	12,884	1,757	7,535	3,516	76
TN	107,035	21,750	60,387	24,838	60
TX	17,693	3,289	10,650	3,688	66
UT	3,375	410	1,907	1,035	23
VA	86,931	18,757	37,705	30,469
VT	2,579	511	1,443	613	12
WA	4,065	506	2,247	1,270	42
WA (DC)	53	20	26	5	2
WV	64,117	12,576	40,339	11,083	119
WI	68,197	10,937	35,843	20,773	644
WY	7,928	1,442	4,613	1,867	6
TOTAL	3,127,533

The key thing in what has become a national movement is the fact that so many states agree on the following:

1) There is a need for a portable skills credential based on a common language, easily understood by employers, educators, and citizens;
2) This common language should be WorkKeys®;
3) The three WorkKeys® assessments that should form the basis of the credential are Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading For Information;
4) The credential should be multi-level;
5) The scores for each level should be 3's for Bronze, 4's for Silver, and 5's for Gold. (Note: KY and IN issue only the Silver and Gold levels)

This represents more agreement between states than has been witnessed on almost any other initiative!

The Consortium is supported by the National Organization for Career Credentialing (www.nationalOCC.org)

The NOCC Board of Directors/Officers are:

Dr. Barbara Bolin, Michigan--President/Treasurer

Robin Fiddes, American Packaging Corporation, Texas--Secretary

John S. Palmer, Jr., Michigan

Tim Kelly--Michigan

Dr. Blossom Burton, Transition Youth International, New Jersey

For more information on the Consortium, contact the NOCC.

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