In the fall of 2005, the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC), with the support of the State Education Agency of the District of Columbia, began an effort to pilot the Equipped for the Future (EFF) National Work Readiness Credential (WRC) at two D.C. youth-serving organizations, Covenant House Washington and the Latin American Youth Center. The aim of the pilot project is to prepare young people, ages 17 to 21, who are participating in job readiness training programs at both organizations to take the National Work Readiness Credential assessments and earn the Work Readiness Credential (WRC).
The National Work Readiness Credential is based on the EFF standards which were defined by business for entry-level work readiness. This standard reflects the knowledge, skills, and abilities that front-line workers, supervisors, managers, and other workforce experts agree are most important to successful performance of entry-level work in the 21st century workplace. The skills addressed in the standard include communication, interpersonal, problem solving and learning skills, as well as applied reading and math. The workplace responsibilities addressed include the following abilities: acquire and use information to get the job done; use appropriate technology; work with others; solve problems; understand and use systems; demonstrate responsible behaviors at work; and learn new skills to meet new job challenges
The District of Columbia is one of six states that are partners in the development and testing of the National Work Readiness Credential, an initiative based at the Institute for a Competitive Workforce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. National advisors to the state partnership include: the Institute for Educational Leadership, the National Association of Manufacturers; the National Retail Federation Foundation; the National Governors' Association, and the National Association of Workforce Boards.
NYEC has worked in partnership with the EFF Training and Technical Assistance Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), to assess the two program sites' current job readiness programming and organizational capacity and assist the programs in integrating EFF work readiness skills standards and teaching and learning strategies into their instructional practices. NYEC and the EFF Center has developed a set of six curriculum modules that the youth program sites used to conduct a pilot training course in the Fall of 2006 designed to prepare youth to take the National Work Readiness Credential assessment and succeed in the workplace. NYEC staff provided ongoing support and technical assistance to the program sites throughout the pilot. NYEC also provided input and guidance for the development of the modules to ensure that the curricular materials are appropriately tailored to the youth program context. NYEC is in the process of finalizing the curriculum and an implementation guide which will be ready for release in 2008.
For more information, contact Mala B. Thakur, Executive Director, at mt@nyec.org or ph. 202-659-1064 and visit the following websites:
