Several years ago, William Thompson, a fitter, and otherworkers were key to figuring out exactly what skills CMS South Carolina Steel needed to look for when hiring new employees.

“Everybody got together and suggested what you needed to do the job,” said Thompson, who was new to the structural steel company when the job profiling was done in 2002 but has about 30 years in the industry.

“The hands-on people are the ones that know the job,” said Bill Fischer, human resources manager at the steel company, which has provided structural steel for the roof at Clemson University's Littlejohn Coliseum and is now producing steel for a new hangar for Boeing at its new plant.

The structural steel company, which has been in Greenville since the 1950s, was one of the early Upstate adopters of the program.

Greenville work force development officials are launching an effort to increase the use of career readiness certificates, a yardstick that can be used to measure the foundational skills required to learn a job, said David Sweaney, regional manager for ACT, the company that created the program.

In addition to encouraging employers to recognize the certificates, the Greenville County Workforce Investment Board has received a state Department of Commerce grant that allows it to offer the Worldwide Interactive Network (WIN) training and WorkKeys exams for free to about 2,000 people who received unemployment benefits, said John Baker, Greenville Works

The project is an effort to certify andup in the Upstate.

“We want to encourage those people to elevate their skills,”he said. “We're trying to raise the bar for everyone out there.”

Greenville County lags much of the state in its employer adoption of WorkKeys and worker completion of the necessary tests, said Laura Harmon, work force development project leader for United Way of Greenville County.

“It's an independent credentialing process that can be used when it's hard to compare high school diplomas across regions and states,” said Bruce Yandle, dean emeritus of Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science.

South Carolina actually started using WorkKeys in pocketsacross the state about 13 years ago,” said Peggy Torres, the state Department of Commerce deputy secretary for workforce.

When the Department of Commerce became the home of workforce development activities, officials wanted to take the system statewide. The statewide launch began in October 2007, and about $3.5 million, mostly in competitive grants, have been awarded to speed the implementation.

“Businesses were telling us they liked to see educational degrees and diplomas, but they don't always tell the specific skills,” she said. In addition, possessing a career readiness certificate can give applicants an edge when applying for a job.

The program provides a career readiness certificate to employees or prospective employees, attesting to their skills in applied math, reading for information and locating information.

If companies have jobs requiring other skills —communication, teamwork, performance and more — they also can be tested for those, Harmon said. A total of 10 WorkKeys assessments are available, and Torres said the state is working to implement assessments for soft skills.

More than 250 companies in South Carolina recognize the career readiness certificate, Harmon said.

The Midlands has more than 20,000 CRC holders while the Pee Dee area has 14,000. Both the Trident and Lower Savannah areas have about 15,000 each. Currently, Greenville County has 4,700 CRC holders and half a dozen employers are using the program.

About 120,000 people statewide — including some high school students — have been certified work ready, Torres said.

Greenville may not have been as quick to pick up on the concept as other regions of the state because of the “relatively high quality of school programs in the Upstate” and local employers' familiarity with the school districts and their results, Yandle said.

In rural areas with less homogeneous school districts,employers may have needed independent credentialing.

Although there is no definitive answer as to why Greenville has been slower to adopt the WorkKeys system than some other parts of the state, Torres said that companies often have their own screening processes and don't initially see the added value. But company tests and WorkKeys can be correlated so additional testing may not be needed.

“Many international companies bring their own testing systems,” she said.

Thirty-nine states have adopted career readiness certificate programs to enhance their worker skills levels, said Sweaney.

Both now, with jobs scarce, and in the future, when companies need skilled workers to meet demand, experts say improving skills is vital in matching South Carolina workers with jobs.

“There are many things out there not in a book or on a blueprint,” said Thompson, who began as a welder's apprentice and also operated a crane placing structural steel for buildings. “It's hands-on. You learn something every day.”

And he said industry needs people who have the necessary skills when they are hired.

“It's not just one person. We're working together as a unit,” he said.

Employee suggestions were refined into a list of skills and a test was developed that would determine whether a candidate had the skills and at what level, Fischer said.

The company now requires that candidates have a career readiness certificate at the required skills level or take classes to gain those skills.

“It's worth every penny that you spend on it,” he said.

Now is the time to push WorkKeys and career readiness certificates, said work force experts.

“I've heard in the last six weeks that people are hiring again,” Baker said. “They'll be cautious about bringing employees back” and required skills are likely to be higher as workers will have to be more productive and have multiple skills.

When Michelin North America's Greenville plant began using the program in 2006, “it doubled our candidate pool for hiring,” said Bob Tolleson, area human resources manager for the plant. Prior to using the program, between 42 percent and 48 percent of candidates were passing Michelin's qualification tests.

Since the career readiness program using WorkKeys was begun,between 83 percent and 87 percent of candidates were successful.

Because the job skills needed have been profiled, “the skills demanded are realistic,” he said.

Fischer said of the program the company adopted in 2002,“It's been a lifesaver for us. It has helped bring in highly qualified candidates for positions. It has helped with safety. It's helped morale. It also gives the candidate a level of self-worth. And our turnover is way down.”

Before the company went in this direction, new employees were not always qualified for the job, high error rates occurred, absenteeism and morale were problems and safety was an issue, he said.

“We use WorkKeys as part of our screening process,” he said,adding that the company works through a staffing agency. About 95 percent of those tested pass the WorkKeys tests at the required level — generally levels 4 and 3.

Depending on their scores, workers can receive a bronze,silver, gold or platinum certificate — ranging from scores of 3s on the three core skills to 6 or higher at the platinum level.

Advanced manufacturing jobs generally require a silver or gold certificate. Health-care jobs are so varied that the certificates needed vary.

If candidates don't pass the test at the necessary level,they can use WIN software to enhance the skills needed for employment or to fill in any gaps they may have, Sweaney said. They also can use the software to prepare for the exam.

“In South Carolina, you have access 24/7 to the WIN program which will address those gaps in skills,” he said.

Employers can recognize the certificate or require it, he said. If a career readiness certificate is required, the employer must have the jobs profiled to determine the skill levels needed, he said.

“I would encourage you to profile your jobs, at least some of them,” Fischer said.

About 17,000 jobs nationwide have been profiled to determine the level of skills needed, Sweaney said.

A candidate with a bronze certificate in the three core employment skills can handle 30 percent of the profiled jobs. A person with a silver certificate, who received scores of 4 on the core skills, can handle 65 percent of the jobs. Someone with a gold certificate, which is a score of 5, can handle 90 percent of the jobs.

“There is nothing subjective about WorkKeys,” Fischer said.

The WorkKeys testing also can be used for training and promotion of existing employees, he said.

“Our growth is going to come from the silver and gold certificate jobs,” Baker said.

Someone who obtains platinum certification — fewer than 1percent of those taking the tests achieve this — basically has the skills to handle any profiled job, Sweaney said.

In South Carolina, 77 people have obtained a platinum certificate.