Governor Perdue Announces Five New Certified Work Ready Communities

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue today announced five new Certified Work Ready Communities, a designation showing the county has the skilled workforce that business demands and the educational infrastructure to drive economic growth and prosperity.

“By building strong public-private partnerships, these communities are transforming their workforces and encouraging economic development,” said Governor Perdue. “The Georgians in these communities are taking charge of their futures and equipping themselves for success.”

The five new Certified Work Ready Communities are Bartow, Dougherty, Green, Hart and Laurens counties. These counties represent the third group to complete their certificate goals and have all successfully met at least the required minimum increase in their county’s public high school graduation rate. To earn the Certified Work Ready Community designation, counties must demonstrate a commitment to improving public high school graduation rates through a measurable increase, and show a specified percentage of the available and current workforce have obtained Work Ready Certificates.

The new Certified Work Ready Communities achieved the following:

• Bartow County: 1,713 Work Ready Certificates earned (97 percent above goal); increased public high school graduation rate from 64.5 percent to 72.4 percent
• Dougherty County: 1,556 Work Ready Certificates earned (37 percent above goal); increased public high school graduation rate from 57.5 percent to 63.3 percent
• Greene County: 349 Work Ready Certificates earned (20 percent above goal); increased public high school graduation rate from 68.2 percent to 76.2 percent
• Hart County: 615 Work Ready Certificates earned (92 percent above goal); increased public high school graduation rate from 63.9 percent to 78.5 percent
• Laurens County: 1,655 Work Ready Certificates earned (110 percent above goal); increased public high school graduation rate from 66.7 percent to 70.9 percent

Each community created a team of economic development, government and education partners to meet the certification criteria. Counties are given three years to reach the goals necessary to earn the designation.

Additionally, three counties have reached their Work Ready Certification goals. All three are now focusing on attaining their public high school graduation rate increase goals to become Certified Work Ready Communities. Those counties are:

• Elbert County: 476 Work Ready Certificates earned (44 percent above goal)
• Walker County: 1,092 Work Ready Certificates earned (45 percent above goal)
• Ware County: 1,110 Work Ready Certificates earned (90 percent above goal)

     Jefferson County became the state’s first Certified Work Ready Community in October 2008. The county improved its public high school graduation rate from 75.5 percent in 2006 to 791 percent in 2008 – an impressive improvement of nearly four percentage points in only two years. At the same time, the county exceeded its Work Ready Certificate goals in every category, for a total of 397 Certificates earned – 40 percent higher than the county’s goal.

     Once counties attain their Certified Work Ready Community goals, they are able to maintain their status by ensuring a small percent of their available workforce continue to earn Work Ready Certificates, engage local businesses to recognize and use Work Ready, and continue to increase their public high school graduation rate until they reach a threshold of 75 percent.

     To continue their work, all eight counties will receive a $10,000 grant. Their Work Ready Community teams will also receive a two-year membership to their local chamber of commerce and a budget for additional Work Ready outreach materials. Counties that are fully certified receive road signs and a seal denoting the year they achieved certification.

Georgia’s Work Ready initiative is based on a skills assessment and certification for job seekers and a job profiling system for businesses. By identifying both the needs of business and the available skills of Georgia’s workforce, the state can more effectively generate the right talent for the right jobs. The Certified Work Ready Community initiative builds on the assessments and job profiling system to create opportunities for greater economic development.

For more information on the Work Ready initiative please visit the Web site at www.gaworkready.org .

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