How Work Ready Communities are Winning the Growth Game
Work Ready Communities (WRC) from ACT is a framework for community-based workforce development. The primary reason 541 communities have decided to participate is to drive economic growth. When your community becomes a Certified Work Ready Community, you can prove the economic viability of your area to employers, location consultants, investors, and other decision-makers because:
- 5,686,991 people have earned WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificates.
- 28,376 Employers around the US have shown their support for the program.
- Site Selection magazine uses NCRC data each year to rank state competitiveness.
- 22,658 jobs profiled for skill alignment

Other Benefits to Your Community
- Identify skills gaps and quantify the skill level of your workforce.
- Build career pathways aligned to the needs of existing local businesses and new businesses you want to attract.
- Boost job candidate pipeline with solutions for targeted populations such as ex-offenders, immigrants, welfare recipients, etc.Improve community morale by promoting WRC certification in site/building listings, community profiles, social media, and other marketing materials.
- Stand out and be recognized for your workforce development efforts.
- Disaster recovery, revitalization, and economic resilience.

How Communities Become Certified
To be certified as “Work Ready,” a community must follow these steps:
1
Show Your Interest
Contact ACT and a staff member will walk you through the process. The form just takes one minute.
Start Now
2
Build Your Team
Your leadership team should include local government, economic development, workforce development, community/technical college, K-12 system, and business/industry.
3
Apply Online
Provide ACT with details of your team’s intent to participate in the program and drive economic growth for your community.
4
Attend WRC Boot Camp
Join us for a workshop that will help your team initiate, deploy and drive a community effort to get certified.
Learn More About WRC Bootcamp5
Achieve Your Goals
Your community will set goals based on the ACT WRC common criteria. These criteria involve individuals earning WorkKeys NCRCs, and employers support.
6
Celebrate!
Congratulations, your community is among the elite regions in the country who have quantifiable evidence of their strong workforce and a common desire to drive business growth. See how other communities have celebrated their achievements.
Videos

Work Ready Communities
In Mississippi, Choctaw and Webster counties became ACT Certified Work Ready Community in May 2019. Local schools support the program by helping students and individuals from the community obtain their National Career Readiness Certificate.

While Mississippi ranks #1 in competitive cost for labor, quality is what brings industry to our state and to Washington County. We know how to grow, and we’ve been ahead of the curve in growing a world-class system to address current and future needs of the workforce.
Which Communities May Participate?
Any community in the United States or that is a U.S. territory may participate as long as it has a FIPS code. This includes 3,243 counties and county equivalents, such as parishes, boroughs and census areas. Currently there are 541 communities, including Guam, participating in Work Ready.
What Others Are Saying
For Communities
Become a Work Ready Community
To show your community's interest in participating in the ACT® Work Ready Communities initiative, complete this brief form.
Get StartedEconomic Development Solutions
Economic Development leaders across the nation open many new doors of impact linked to their Work Ready Community efforts
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