The company that’s known for conducting college entrance exams has issued a report calling for a “National Workforce Skills Credentialing System.” A.C.T. president, John Scalione, says the system could help thousands of people figure out their job qualifications and the education they need to get a job.
“The unfortunate truth is that we have man folks in the marketplace today that are searching for work, that do in fact have skills, but they don’t know how to identify those specific to a job,” Scalione says. Scalione says there is not one place were people can go to figure out if the education and experience they have is what they need.
He says there is a skill shortage in America and for those who do have skills and are having a problem finding work, the system would provide a “how to” for those people in linking their skills to jobs. Scalione says the system could also be used to help people before they need to find a job.
Scalione says we often don’t think about skills testing until people are in a “distress situation” such as being out of work, or their industry shuts down. But he says having the system would allow them to understand what type of skills they have and what they would need to move into a new industry.
Scalione says the system could help save training dollars spent by businesses and government by giving them a better idea of where to focus the resources. You can see the entire report on the A.C.T. website at: www.act.org.