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Keys2Work LLC
Pittsburgh Business Times-3/03

Keys2Work program helps to link students with educational programs
Educational institutions can pay to access potential students
Maria Guzzo

DOWNTOWN — A local education-to-employment initiative offers educational institutions a way to tap into potential students who might be a good fit for their programs.

Keys2Work LLC is a skills-based career development and job matching system that helps young people discover what careers they have an interest and aptitude for, improve their skills for those jobs and, in some cases, land those positions.

Keys2Work's mission starts by testing Western Pennsylvania high school students with a written skills assessment to measure how their academic abilities match up with the skill requirements of the workplace, said Barry Nathan, Keys2Work's associate executive director and former industrial psychologist with ACT Inc. The test the high schoolers take is the Work Keys assessment from ACT, a national testing service.

So far, Keys2Work has tested 14,500 10th- and 11th-grade students in more than 100 high schools in nine southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

When students' test results reveal they have the capacity and the interest level to do well in certain careers, Keys2Work places information about related educational offerings or potential job openings in their mailbox. Students can then choose to contact the organizations that have paid to be listed on the Keys2Work Web site for more information, Mr. Nathan said.

"But there's nothing in this that is spam," Mr. Nathan said, referring to unwanted mail that often infiltrates e-mail in-boxes. "Everything matches their interests."

Students who have taken the test can refer back to their Keys2Work Web site and mailbox with a user name and password for 10 years, using it as a job training and job search tool. Keys2Work recently began charging educational institutions $1,500 to list on the site. The fee for employers to list on the site has not yet been set.

One organization that already is seeing results and interest from students is Oakland-based Mercy Institute for Healthcare Professionals.

"My job is to answer the health care shortage in Western Pennsylvania and one of our main goals is to reach children about health care careers," said Julie Hester, the institute's director. "Nursing and other careers in health care are very rewarding careers, but we're not sure if that message is reaching the high schools."

Ms. Hester has been working with Keys2Work since its founding nearly three years ago. But Keys2Work only recently began offering a way for students to link up with educational institutions for program information.

Mercy has heard from six students who recently received their test scores and found that their interests and abilities match health care careers. Ms. Hester considers that a good return.

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