“We’ve been onboarding,” said Harriet Hollis, WorkReady coordinator at the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce.
Although the efforts of people and organizations have helped place the community on a better path to certification, so has the recent change in the number of people who need to become certified.
Whereas initially the state- set goal was for 2,583 people in Albany-Dougherty County to become WorkReady certified, the new figure for certification is 929 people, said Gary Frag{‘e}, administrator of the WorkReady program at Albany Technical College
So far, 22 percent of the goal has been met.
Albany Tech is the lone facility in Albany that can proctor the test, which measures skills in the core areas of reading for information, applied math and locating information.
The new state criteria, Frag{‘e} said, are:
• private industry, 415 people
• the unemployed, 274 people
• government-sector workers, 105
• high school graduates entering the work force, 38
• General Education Development (GED) test recipients, 31
• technical school graduates, 66.
Of those, Frag{‘e} said Friday, the latest certification figures are:
• private-sector workers, 39 certified
• the unemployed, 27 certified
• government-sector workers, 292 certified
• high school graduates entering the work force, 65 certified.
Frag{‘e} said that no GED recipients or tech-school graduates have been certified. That group, he said, will be targeted toward the end of the month.
“We’re looking really good,” said Hollis.
In an effort to drive more people toward certification, officials are offering $20 gas cards and $20 Wal-Mart gift cards to those who head to Albany Tech and become certified.
The cards are on a first- come, first-served basis, Hollis said, and are available thanks to Albany Mayor Willie Adams, attorney Al Corriere and a state grant given to Dougherty County through the chamber.
The city of Albany, Hollis said, has committed to providing a limited number of weeklong bus passes for those who become certified.
Some businesses in Albany, such as Tara Foods, have been utilizing WorkReady certification for some time to evaluate the skill level of potential employees.
Others, such as Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, are just coming on board.
“We are going through a pilot program in the business office and registration, taking them through the profile assessment,” said Brenda Hunt, director of employment and employee relations at Phoebe.
That’s good news for Hollis.
“We need more businesses to come aboard and start requesting WorkReady certificates from new applicants, potential applicants ... and need them to have their existing work force (become certified),” Hollis said.
By doing so, she said, “it start(s) sending a message that this is one of the requirements for employment in their organization. We believe that it will get them a better skilled work force.”
At Phoebe, by implementing the program — which after assessment places people in four skill levels: bronze, silver, gold or platinum — “we can identify gap training and job fit and measure specific talent in key areas to help with recruitment and retention,” Hollis said.
The first stage of implementation, on track for September, will be new hires.
“In order to work at Phoebe Putney, we are preferring that you have the Georgia WorkReady Certification,” Hunt said of the expectations.
The second set will be the existing work force.
About 10 people within the organization already have been assessed.
“They can be champions for our new hires,” Hunt said.
The community has 24 months from the announcement date in August 2007 to meets its certification goals.