by Lynn Johnson, Human Services Director
comments open from January 12 until January 31

On Thursday, December 10, Governor Ritter visited the Jefferson County Workforce Center to officially launch the CareerReady Colorado Certificate, a tool that helps match the right person with the right job.

The CareerReady Colorado Certificate is awarded after an individual completes a skills assessment at any workforce center. The assessment, a WorkKeys system from ACT, verifies workplace skills in reading for information, locating information and applied mathematics.

While job seeking, David Bebout used his certificate to land a job at Envergent, an environmental assessment company. "This is gauging intellectual qualities, commitment, team work analysis and analytical skills," Bebout said. "These are all things that any business can utilize and so can any job-seeker."

Ameristar is one of those businesses realizing the benefits of the CareerReady Colorado Certificate. "At Ameristar Casino Resort Spa, we just opened our 4 star hotel in October, and found that utilizing the WorkKeys assessments that can lead to a CareerReady Colorado certificate helped us to identify the best qualified candidates in the most timely manner. Working with the Jeffco Workforce Center to administer the assessments has made it very easy for us," says Reggie Fullwood, Sr. VP & GM, Ameristar Casino Resort Spa, Black Hawk.

In addition to launching the CareerReady Colorado Certificate, the governor unveiled three legislative proposals intended to help employees and small businesses with job training and retraining programs:
• Incentives for health care professionals to work in rural areas.
• Extended eligibility of the existing CollegeInvest nurse loan forgiveness program.
• Implementing employee funded job-retraining accounts which would offer incentives to businesses that match contributions.

Gov. Bill Ritter told the crowd that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression. "Government can't solve the unemployment problem by itself, but it does have a role," Ritter said. "We're making significant investments in job training and retraining programs so that Coloradans have the right skills for the new jobs that we're able to build in this economy," Ritter said.