Stephens County proclaimed a "Work Ready Certified Community"

On Monday, November 2, Governor Sonny Perdue proclaimed Stephens County a “Work Ready Certified Community” at the Work Ready Awards Luncheon in Atlanta, giving community leaders a framed certificate listing the County’s achievements. This announcement is the culmination of a process that began in early 2007. The effort to gain certification was led by Gordon Broome, Work Ready Community Team Leader, in coordination with the North Georgia Technical College, the school system, the Stephens County Development Authority, and other community organizations.

The Georgia Work Ready program is a voluntary initiative which enables communities to demonstrate that they have the talented workforce needed to fill current and future jobs. The certification also shows a community’s commitment to education and to improving high school graduation rates, important factors for driving businesses to an area. To become certified, specified numbers of community residents had to pass the Work Ready Assessment in six different categories: Technical college graduates, GED holders, unemployed adults, high school graduates entering the workforce, current high school seniors, and college graduates or recent attendees. The County’s target of 418 certifications within 36 months was completed in 26 months with 833 Work Certified residents.

Another requirement related to improving the High School graduation rate. Over the last two years, the school system has improved that rate by 15.5 points; from 63.1% to 78.6%. This achievement is well above the basic requirement of 2 points per year.

What is also significant about Stephens County’s achievement is the percentage of assessed individuals who scored at the “Gold” level and are thereby considered able to perform 90% of the jobs in Georgia. 29% of Stephens County’s certified individuals scored at the “Gold” level versus only 20% statewide, proving the local workforce to be well above average. The Work Ready Assessment includes four passing categories – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

The County’s certification process continues. Over the next two years, the Community Team must sustain its efforts to increase the numbers of businesses requiring workers to gain certification, assess more individuals, improve scores of non-passers, and maintain a high school graduation rate above 75%.

22 out of 159 counties in Georgia are currently Work Ready Certified Communities. Stephens, Franklin, and Hart are the only three contiguous counties in the state to reach this designation.

“Our work force is our most important economic development tool,” says Cam Parker, Stephens County Development Authority Chairman. “We literally market ourselves to prospective businesses, and this designation proves what we already knew: our work force is second to none.”

“What we’ve demonstrated in the last 26-month period is that above average skills exist in Stephens County,” states Gordon Broome, Stephens County Work Ready Community Team Leader. “We are going to continue to actively promote this asset and increase it by using job gap training and other opportunities of the Work Ready program.”