Welcome, glad you are here.

A mini-intro---this is the weekly highlight into all things Academy career information.  I love a good career talk and I will make sure you have all the latest and greatest information to prepare you for what is next. The Academy is an amazing place to explore your interests and learn more about yourself and identify potential career goals.  I will be your guide/helper/career experience specialist this year and I am excited, and I love it here!  Let’s get into it!

Workplace Readiness Skills test (WRS)

Ok, here is the real deal.  You are going to hear and see this everywhere this year in your Academy class.  No matter which class you are in---the WRS will be there waiting for you—it’s good stuff though! 

What is it?  Well, companies/employers/the people that will hire you someday have identified skills that they need to see in their future employees (yes, that is you).  We also call these transferrable skills because well---they transfer and are useful in all jobs. 

On with it already—what are they?  There are 22 identified workplace readiness skills and the list is linked here, but to quickly get to the point, they are the skills that make you a great employee.  Think about this—when you visit the doctor to feel better, a class taught by your favorite teacher, or a really great restaurant to eat, what do all these “employees” have in common?  They were perhaps helpful, professional, got things done, had clear communication, managed multiple things at once, and you may consider them hard working!  These my friends are all instances of workplace readiness skills.  Some of these are obvious and seem to be silly that they are taught in the classroom, but others like job-specific tools and tech, conflict resolution, and information security and tech will be things they may need a little more practice. 

Now for some real talk—there will be a test on this.  But how great is it that you will get to say that you have a certification in Workplace Readiness Skills for the Commonwealth?  I am talking good resume stuff here!  We will get into that later.