Assessment program's success discussed at First Friday Coffee

Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center's WorkKeys assessment program has helped to ensure that entry level workers have the basic math, reading and comprehension skills needed for most jobs, center director Rich Payne said Friday.

The career center has helped pilot the program in Missouri in which students can obtain career readiness certificates from the Missouri Division of Workforce Development showing that they have mastered the skills after going through a two-week assessment program, he said. The program also includes instruction to help such students improve their assessment scores.

Since the program began in November 2005, 425 students have obtained certificates. Students who score at the highest levels on the skill assessments receive "gold" certificates. For lower rankings, students receive "silver" or "bronze" certificates.

"We are held up across the state of Missouri as a shining star," he said.

WorkKeys is a national workforce development system that focuses on making sure today's entry level workers can do such things as calculate percent discounts or markups, follow instructions and read for information.

The goal, said Payne, is to help provide more skilled workers for area employers and cut down on job turnovers.

Payne and members of his staff spoke to about 200 Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce members at the First Friday Coffee at the Show Me Center.

Afterward, Payne said the assessment program will be expanded this spring. Every senior at Cape Girardeau Central High School will be tested on such skills, he said. "Only one other school in the state does that," Payne said.

Chaffee and Scott City high schools are looking at the possibility of having their students tested too, he said.

The career center serves about 1,200 to 1,300 students each school day, ranging from high school vocational classes to adult education courses.

"We serve 10 school districts in the region," Payne said. The school districts pay for their students to attend the center.

Kelly High School at Benton, Mo., sent students to the career center for the first time last school year. Fourteen of its high school students took classes at the career center. This school year, 32 Kelly High School students are taking classes at the center, Payne said.

The center is expanding its campus on Silver Springs Road to meet the demand for electrical training and cabinet making, he said.

The Cape Girardeau school board late last month awarded a $1.52 million contract to Columbia Construction Corp. of Cape Girardeau to construct a 12,000-square-foot structure. The new building will include shop space for cabinet making, an electrical shop and four classrooms.

Payne said the new building is scheduled to open for the start of classes next fall.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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