Articles - Summer 2011 - return to index
Enterprise likes applicants with a National Career Readiness Certificate
"The NCRC
is like a |
-Story and photo by Chris Cunningham
Linda Dagg, director for Enterprise Renta-Car®, oversees a team of more than 300 rental reservation representatives in Eugene and St. Louis, Mo., and directly supervises seven managers.
Like most business people, when Dagg considers new employees, she wants some assurance that she's choosing the best candidates for the company.
Under her leadership, the Eugene call center became the first employer in Lane County to use the National Career Readiness Certificate as a tool in the company’s hiring process for management applicants.
Dagg, who helped open the call center
in Eugene in 2008, took a serious look
at the NCRC process, because "it seemed
like something that would enhance our
recruiting process," she says. "And it's
free to the employer."
Before Dagg incorporated the NCRC
into her hiring practices, she reviewed
the online study programs that job
applicants can study, at no cost, to help
prepare for the certification exam.
The NCRC verifies that a job seeker
has passed examinations pertaining to
basic workplace skills, including and
locating information, two skills that are
crucial to most jobs. As a work-related
skills credential, the certificate provides
measurable documentation of an
employees' skills.
Enterprise, which first implemented the NCRC prerequisite in January 2011, doesn't yet require the NCRC for its call center applicants, most of whom work from home.
But Dagg says she "sees the payoff-that the certificate covered the bases-" when she observes her managerial staff locating information and sharing it effectively with their rental reservation representatives.
Job seekers can use the self-paced preparatory NCRC software at the Oakway State Employment Center or at Lane's 30th Avenue campus Workforce Development Department.
The NCRC "is like a letter of recommendation," Dagg says.
- National Career Readiness Certificate - www.lanecc.edu/wdd/careerreadiness.html