Gov. Jay Nixon this morning visited Springfield to announce Greene County’s designation as a Certified Work Ready Community.
Stakeholders have called on the county to seek the status for at least four years, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
Nixon presented the designation to county leaders at The Old Glass Place downtown prior to the start of the second-annual EmployAbility Summit, an event put on by the EmployAbility Collaborative and Ozark Region Workforce Development Board focusing on inclusive workforce solutions.
The Certified Work Ready Community designation by American College Testing indicates Greene County’s workforce training program has worked to attract and retain jobs in the community. The voluntary program requires counties to obtain National Career Readiness certificates that prove the area has workers with job skills accepted nationwide.
“The more highly skilled workers we have, the more highly skills jobs we’ll create,” Nixon said, noting the program helps pull investments from outside of Missouri. “Greene County has stepped up to the plate.”
Missouri has 81 counties participating in the Certified Work Ready Community program and 36 that are fully certified, including Greene County.
The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Springfield Public Schools, city of Springfield, Ozarks Technical Community College and more than 300 local employers helped the county earn the designation.
After Nixon presented the designation to county leaders, Springfield Director of Workforce Development Mary Ann Rojas kicked off the EmployAbility Summit with a presentation called “The Three I’s of Inclusion.”
“Being inclusive is a major competitive advantage,” she said, referring to the words intentional, innovation and impact.
Also scheduled to speak were Jennifer Kincaid, Vocational Rehabilitation's business specialist and internal communications lead; Mary Beth Majors, senior vice president and director of talent acquisition for UMB Bank; and Jennifer Hertha, senior recruiter of UMB Bank. Ozarks Technical Community College's Fine Arts Department also was slated to present a theatrical performance on workplace inclusivity during lunch. The event was scheduled to run through 1 p.m.
