The City of Auburn discussed the possibility of becoming a Work Ready City at the scheduled workshop meeting on Thursday evening.

Last summer Governor Sonny Perdue announced seven Work Ready Region grant awards (WRR) and Barrow County was included as a pilot site. The suggested WRR Grant project that the county is involved with is a Life Science Grant.

Also included in the region is Jackson, Madison, Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Morgan, Walton and Gwinnett counties.

 The Work Ready program is a certificate program that aims to have every person in the workforce Work Ready Certified. The goal of creating Work Ready Regions, according to www.gaworkready.org, is to bring together assets and leaders to create regional talent pools targeting existing strategic industries and increase economic development opportunities.

"Businesses are beginning to require these scores when you go in to an interview, said Councilwoman Sally Brown in a brief presentation to Council on Thursday night. "The Department of Labor is starting to require it. In Barrow County if you have a Work Ready Certificate you're guaranteed an interview, Gwinnett County is asking for it, so what I would like to encourage the City of Auburn to do is become a Work Ready City," Brown said. "All of this is free and it is a benefit to us as a city and also to our employees who are here," she said.

To become a Work Ready City Auburn would begin to require Work Ready Scores from all employees applying for a position with the city. To obtain a Work Ready Certificate applicants would be required to take the Georgia Work Ready Test. The test is available at Technical schools throughout the region.

Individuals who achieve high skill levels will qualify for more jobs. The Georgia Work Ready program uses test results from the assessment to award certificates in four categories. A Bronze level signifies that an individual has scored at least a level three in each of the three core areas (reading for information, applied mathematics and locating information) and has the necessary skills for 35 percent of the jobs in the WorkKeys database.

A Silver level signifies an individual scored at least a level four in each category and has the necessary skills for 65 percent of the jobs in the WorkKeys database. A Gold level signifies that a person has scored at least a five in each of the categories and has the necessary skills for 90 percent of the jobs in the database and a Platinum level signifies that an individual has scored at least a six in each of the three categories and has the necessary skills for 99 percent of the jobs in the WorkKeys database.

The test questions go from easy to hard and start at basic skill levels such as reading standard information, adding and subtracting. Once basic skills are identified, the questions get more difficult. This is when the assessment identifies the different levels of adequacy for various jobs within the database.

Most jobs in the database require a level three or four (bronze or silver). If Auburn decides to adopt the program, it would be the first city in Barrow County to become a Work Ready City.

"This is a marketing tool for our county," Brown said. "Barrow was one of the first counties who got picked to do this program, so when the state is promoting Georgia to potential employers and businesses that want to come in, they are listing the counties that are Work Ready and they can show that our work force is able to do the jobs that they have ... so that we have higher-level businesses coming in, higher paying jobs," she said.

For job seekers there is a list of positions on the website that details what scores are necessary for certain positions. Right now, Lanier Tech is the testing spot for people living in Barrow County.

The test is free and open to everybody more than 18-years of age. For more information on the Work Ready program visit www.gaworkready.com. or http://www.act.org/myworkkeys/georgia/.