Credentialing and Certifying Soft Skills Competencies
LRI believes that certificates can and should evolve in ways that demonstrable improve services to both employers and individuals. If work-ready means that an individual has the specific soft, academic and technical skills that a job requires, then certificates should address all three skill sets. LRI is eager to work with education, training and assessment organizations that share this view.
A basic approach to credentialing the skills that employers/work requires is described in No-Gaps Credentialing. It provides a framework for the items listed below.
The most basic outcome of a soft skills assessment is a Feedback Report, which can be customized by partnering local, regional or state agencies to include a certificate that lists the individual’s effective soft skills. This kind of credential has been provided to:
- The City of Phoenix and their Workforce System
- The Association of Washington Business – that State’s Chamber of Commerce
- The Southeast Wisconsin Alliance, as part of their WIRED Grant from the US Department of Labor
LRI and CASAS are committed to supporting the establishment of valid documentation of people’s knowledge, skills and abilities across soft, academic and technical skills. This supports employers – who learn more about applicants – and individuals – who gain a competitive advantage when interviewing.
- CASAS - Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems – to create blended credentials that attest to both academic (CASAS) and soft skills (measured by LRI)
- Workforce Skills Certification System – WSCS
- A general overview of WSCS
- WSCS Certificate and Competency Profile (academic and soft skils)
- A more detailed introduction to WSCS and the contributions of CASAS and LRI to the process
- No-Gaps Credentialing builds upon the LRI/CASAS model and extends documentation to include technical and high-level academic skills, such as WorkKeys.
- National External Diploma Program – NEDP (To learn more about NEDP)
The steps in establishing a certification process: Certification that Starts and Ends with Employers.
