Alabama’s Ready to Work program provides a career pathway for adults with limited education and employment experience at 66 sites by 22 institutions. Ready to Work’s workplace environment provides trainees the entry level skills required for employment with most businesses and industries in Alabama. The training curriculum is set to standards cited by business and industry employers throughout the state, and the skills cited in the U. S. Department of Labor’s Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) Reports.
The Ready-to-Work (RTW) Program is operated by the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education, Governor’s Office of Workforce Development in cooperation with AIDT. The RTW sites are selected on a priority basis according to economic need and the college’s demonstrated ability to ensure effective program operations and services. Qualified participants may enter the program at any time judged appropriate by the RTW Program Director. (NOTE: “Enrollment” does not include college students taking RTW for other reasons). The RTW contacts are found here.
Essential requirements for successful completion include:
- A 95 percent attendance and punctuality rate, which must be certified by the college; (The calculation of a participant’s attendance and punctuality rate may take into account an individually-negotiated full-time or part-time attendance schedule. Participant absences or tardies that are excused by the instructor should not be counted so as to lower the participant’s attendance and punctuality rate).
- Instructor certification of “Satisfactory” achievement of work ethic, organizational skills, attitude and motivation based on observation and/or testing;
- Instructor certification of “Satisfactory” achievement of problem solving skills, workplace behaviors, computer skills, job acquisition skills and manufacturing skills;
- Attainment of a minimum WorkKeys Assessment Level 3 on Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information, and Locating Information;
- A score of at least 70 percent on the written Alabama Certified Worker Examination.
- Failure to achieve any of the requirements will result in the immediate release of the client from the RTW Program.
- Successful completers earn an “Alabama Certified Worker” (ACW) Certificate and a State of Alabama “Career Readiness Credential” (CRC).
