Genesee Valley BOCES, Attica, Batavia, Byron-Bergen, Notre Dame and Pavilion students demonstrated how they will graduate with essential skills needed across a variety of professional fields.

Students exceeded national standards for performance in ACT® WorkKeys® assessment in applied math, graphic literacy and workplace documents, Genesee Valley BOCES announced.

“Earning an ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate gives students a meaningful way to demonstrate that they have the foundational skills employers value across a wide range of industries,” said Foster W. Miller, Principal at Genesee Valley BOCES. “We are incredibly proud of our students for achieving such strong results and showing that they are prepared to take the next step into the workforce, an apprenticeship or continued education.”

The ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC®) is a nationally recognized, portable, evidence-based credential that measures and certifies essential foundational work skills needed for success in jobs across industries and occupations. NCRC are awarded based on performance in the ACT WorkKeys assessment.

Since 2025, 97% of local high school students earned a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze WorkKeys NCRC, with 77% attaining a Silver NCRC or higher and 47% earning a Gold or Platinum NCRC.

Attica senior Boden Spink was among 46 Genesee Valley BOCES students to earn a WorkKeys NCRC this spring. Following his experience in the GV BOCES Electro-Mechanical Trades program and Finger Lake Youth Apprenticeship Program (FLYAP), he was hired by agricultural equipment manufacturer Oxbo International in Bergen.

“It’s definitely worth the time to sit down and take the test and really show someone and show yourself where you are with those kinds of skills,” said Spink, who noted that the assessment aligned with the tasks he’s seen during his FLYAP co-op at Oxbo International. “It definitely does a good job of showing what you’ll see and what you can expect from the workplace and really helping show what you already know.”

Pavilion High School piloted the NCRC program during the 2024-2025 school year and expanded the assessments in 2025-2026. Students from Notre Dame High School, Attica High School, Batavia High School and Byron-Bergen High School also completed the program in 2025-2026.

A benchmarking study by ACT of over 300,000 students between the fall of 2022 to the summer of 2025 found that 28% of students nationwide who took both the ACT and WorkKeys Assessments attained a Gold or Platinum NCRC, with 52% attaining a Silver NCRC or higher and 85% attaining a Bronze NCRC or higher.

“The results we’ve seen so far, along with programs like GLOW With Your Hands and the Finger Lakes Youth Apprenticeship Program, shows that we have an upcoming generation that is ready to take on the opportunities available in the agriculture, advanced manufacturing, construction and professional industries,” said Chris Suozzi, GCEDC Executive Vice President of Business & Workforce Development.