Oconee County is working with the Governor's Office of Workforce Development to obtain the "Certified Work Ready Community of Excellence" designation. Work Ready is a new initiative started in 2006 by Governor Sonny Perdue.

Work Ready was established to quantify the skill level of Georgia residents, enable residents to enhance the skills that they currently possess to make them suitable candidates for better jobs, provide businesses and industries within the state a measurement tool that indicates the skill level of a potential employee before they begin work, and increase the high school graduation rate within the state of Georgia.

This program was endorsed by Governor Sonny Perdue, numerous state agencies, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and Georgia Power. This initiative is expected to be tremendously beneficial to companies like Georgia Power who anticipates a large percentage of its workforce will retire within the next 10 years. These retirements will create a void of institutional knowledge within the company, emphasizing the need to hire individuals who possess the skills necessary to perform the essential functions of the job.

The Work Ready initiative consists of three primary components.

1. Skills assessments (WorkKeys) are available to all adults within the state of Georgia through the Technical College system - at no cost! These skills assessments determine the individual's abilities in the areas of Reading for Information, Locating Information, and Applied Mathematics. Completion of this assessment will "certify" that individual at a skill level that corresponds to their score on the assessment. This skill level can be evaluated by potential employers to determine if the candidate possesses the skills necessary to perform the job.
   
   Should individuals not achieve the level that they desire on the skills assessment, gap training is available through the technical college system to enhance their skills - also free of charge! Online or classroom training is available for individuals seeking to improve their job skills. Upon completion of the skills training, individuals can re-take any portions of the assessment in hopes of improving their scores.



2. Job Profiles are available through the technical colleges, at potentially no cost to employers. Profiles are completed by the technical college to evaluate the core job skills necessary to perform the work within your company. Manufacturers who will employ an additional 15 employees during the course of a 12-month period are eligible to have a job profiled at no cost. Any other employer who will employ an additional 25 employees during a 12-month period is also eligible to have a free profile conducted. Special exceptions are made for state target industries.
   
   Upon completion of the job assessment, the technical college will provide your company with an EEO compliant statement indicating that the skills identified in the profile are baseline skills which candidates must be able to perform in order to be hired. This process does not take hiring/personnel decisions out of your hands, it merely provides you with an extra layer of protection in your hiring practices to ensure that you get quality employees. Best of all, you can send your candidates to the technical college to complete the Work Keys assessment prior to your interviews to determine who is actually capable of performing the job - free of charge!



3. Increased High School Graduation Rate is also a component of the Work Ready Initiative. Foundations for job skills are not learned in college or technical colleges; these foundations are set long before students complete high school. For this reason, the State of Georgia included this component in the Work Ready initiative, and rightfully so.
   
   Oconee County is a community that values education. The county has one of the most successful public school districts in the state. Graduation rates for the year 2006 were 87.9 percent the third highest county total in the state. In order to meet the requirements of the program, this total was required to increase to 89.4% (a 1.5% increase). Oconee County's schools have already topped a 93% graduation rate.
   
   The Oconee County School System is supportive of this initiative as it seeks to enhance the educational experience of all students and generate a quality workforce for the community.

Oconee County is not alone in the pursuit of this designation. There are 155 of 159 Georgia counties currently pursuing this designation, with more to follow. Communities all across the state have begun to embrace the benefits of how the Work Ready Community initiative can be beneficial.

For more information on how the Work Ready initiative can benefit you individually or your company, please contact the Oconee County Economic Development Office.