Eau Claire County becomes first in the state to receive ACT Work Ready Community

EAU CLAIRE — After years of community collaboration, Eau Claire County has become the first county in the state of Wisconsin to be designated an ACT Work Ready Community.

Obtaining this comes after meeting certain business metrics for the community, said Lynette Livingston, Chippewa Valley Technical College provost and vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. It recognizes that there is a certain number of individuals who have taken a series of ACT WorkKeys tests, testing their soft skills and earning themselves a National Career Readiness Certificate, and reached a certain number of employers who recognize that certificate.

“What it says about Eau Claire County is that we’re competitive,” she said. “We’re recruiting new business and jobs to the areas because we can quantify that we have a talent pool. So, it would help to identify Eau Claire County as a good investment choice for future workforce development.”

This title comes many years after a CVTC-led coalition pushed for Eau Claire County to meet the criteria for this designation.

When a story on CVTC’s push towards the ACT Work Ready Community designation was included in the Spring 2018 edition of the Business Leader, a significant portion of regional companies had very little to no knowledge about the WorkKeys assessment and certificates.

Through the technical college’s initiative, co-led by Livingston and Dean of Workforce and Integrated Technologies Jeff Sullivan, more than 80 organizations recognize the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate, or NCRC, as job credentials. The qualification is based on a test which ranks scores in applied math, graphic literacy and a workplace documents assessment, giving employers a chance to find quality candidates with an NCRC.

Apart from being a designated WorkKeys testing center, Livingston said CVTC has also been working with businesses to identify specific skills and skill levels of a particular job or task from the test.

While the test used to be mandated for high school students in the state of Wisconsin, it is now optional for them.

Including Eau Claire, a total of 559 communities across the nation share an ACT Work Ready Community designation. Certifications last two years before they must be renewed, with Eau Claire County’s lasting until May 2026.

With Eau Claire County being the state’s first designated community with this certification, Livingston said Wisconsin is a competitive state and she anticipates that more communities in this state will develop an interest in achieving their own certification.

Continuing to partner with the community while obtaining this designation, Livingston said her hope is to show how they are able to leverage, reach their goals and get additional businesses to join in.

“My hope is that we can re-engage with all of our employers who sign on with us before certification to say we believe in this idea… We can really serve as an exemplary model for focusing on economic development for the state,” said Livingston.