As Baldwin County residents continue to work against the prevailing economic turmoil of the time, county and city officials want them to know about a statewide program to match them with the employer that needs their skill set.

The Georgia Work Ready Initiative was created to help improve the job training and marketability of the state’s workforce and drive future economic growth in Georgia, according to the program’s Web site, www.gaworkready.org.

The Work Ready Initiative provides Georgia job seekers with access to assessment tools that convey potential employees’ skill and knowledge levels by testing their portable skills: applied math, locating information and reading for information.

After completing an assessment test, which can be administered at Central Georgia Technical College’s Milledgeville campus, job seekers are provided with a Work Ready Certificate that indicates their skill and knowledge levels, or level of work readiness, to potential employers.

That assessment will also help job seekers identify opportunities for gaining more skills or training. From there, job seekers can qualify for free online “gap” training to help improve their job skills.

Milledgeville-Baldwin County Development Authority Director Angie Gheesling said that the Work Ready Certificate is one way for Baldwin job seekers to set themselves apart from the 2,000 other job seekers by providing potential employers with an efficient way of evaluating how their skills will fit into the work assignment being advertised.

“With the assessment certificate, you’re able to walk in and show a company what you’re able to do,” Gheesling said. “And this is not something that just Milledgeville is doing; the whole state has embraced the Work Ready Initiative.”

Baldwin County Commissioner Emily Davis told The Union-Recorder that she heard about the Work Ready Initiative in a meeting of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia.

Davis said the Work Ready Initiative can help qualified job seekers find jobs faster.

Gheesling said several local companies, such as Vernay Manufacturing and Vought Aircraft Industries, don’t just know about the Work Ready certification, but they are increasingly making it a part of their recruitment process. And more and more in the future, she said, companies will be moving to incorporate the Georgia Work Ready Initiative or some other type of assessment programming into their employee recruitment regiment.

“The assessment test is free,” she said. “There’s no reason not to do it.”

To learn more about the Georgia Work Ready Initiative, visit www.gaworkready.org.