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Governor Mike Parson delivered Missouri's State of the State address Wednesday afternoon. The speech included Parson's support for all 114 Missouri counties to reach their WRC certification by the end of his term. For this year, the governor expressed a goal to offer WorkKeys to 12 thousand high schoolers in the Show-Me State.  

Lafourche Parish has begun the process to become a certified ACT Work Ready Community. This process was initialized by Parish President Archie Chaisson and Assessor Wendy Thibodeaux who share a common vision to retain and attract business and industry with local talent. This certification will broaden the Parish’s ability to develop a strong workforce pipeline, desirable to employers and current and future citizens.

Richland Parish Chamber of Commerce director Scott Franklin signed the certification papers Jan. 7, completing a two-year long cooperative effort with Ouachita and Morehouse Parishes to build and improve the area’s workforce. 

“I’m most proud that this project, which will create more employment opportunities for our children, cost the taxpayers absolutely nothing,” Franklin said. “Good things sometimes simply require initiative and willingness to volunteer.”

Tammy Green, Director of Workforce and IT Innovation at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, discusses the important role that formerly incarcerated individuals can play in the workforce development ecosystem. Learn more at www.act.org/workforce

Building our readers’ knowledge and capabilities is the purpose of State of the States 2021, Site Selection’s annual compendium of data that matter to global corporate location decision-makers. This edition includes the sixth annual installment of Rankings That Matter, where the six-point scoreboard features the WorkKeys NCRC as the preferred measure for workforce quality.  Other criteria include rankings on tax climate, higher education R&D, workers compensation, industrial electric power costs, and state fiscal health.

State and local officials joined Carvana for a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning to mark the grand opening of the company’s new vehicle inspection and distribution center in West Memphis. Gov. Asa Hutchinson praised the quality of the workforce that's part of the Work Ready Community in Crittenden County during a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Tuesday.

The Mississippi State Board of Education voted today to open public comment on the addition of the ACT WorkKeys assessment, in conjunction with a recognized career pathway or industry certification, to the accountability measure evaluating how schools and districts prepare students for college and the workforce. The Commission on School Accreditation on Dec. 10 approved unanimously a proposal from the Mississippi Department of Education to require a WorkKeys Silver level student performance and completion of an industry certification or pathway to ensure comparable rigor between ACT and ACT WorkKeys in the accountability model. 

Today we celebrate an exciting milestone: more than five million ACT® WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificates® (NCRCs®) have been earned since 2006. The NCRC is a nationally recognized credential that validates foundational workplace skills by measuring a range of hard and soft skills relevant to any occupation, at any level, and across industries. The employment and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have only exacerbated the urgent need (for employers, current employees, high school students, work-based learners, the unemployed, and job seekers alike) to recognize this portable, evidence-based credential.

No matter what kind of crisis or disaster comes your community’s way (and 2020 has brought many), there are steps you can take to build the resiliency you need and hone the skills and flexibility that will keep your economy thriving.  Here are three techniques for keeping your community resilient, followed by resources to help you along the way.