Reston, VA- Individuals who choose to enter the workforce immediately after high school or postsecondary education need to have core academic and workplace competencies for employment.  To provide students with a credential that validates their mastery of these competencies, and to help meet standard government education requirements, GAERF and SkillsUSA have established a partnership to offer online PrintED/SkillsUSA Skill Connect Assessments. These examinations will test technical skills and knowledge with interactive questions enriched by animations, videos, drawings and photographs.  The five assessments will include:

    •    Advertising & Design
    •    Digital File Preparation/Digital File Output
    •    Graphic Communications
    •    Offset Press Operations/Binding & Finishing
    •    Screen Printing
    
"Two critical trends are converging today in the field of career technical education," notes GAERF President Ralph Nappi. "One is the need to ensure that entry level workers are well prepared with updated skills on the most current technologies. The other trend is the emphasis on one universal set of standardized skills from which to test and measure competency," he continues. "By GAERF's joining forces with SkillsUSA to provide end of program assessments for all graphic communications students, a more consolidated and efficient approach to address the needs of our future workforce is now in place."

"These Skill Connect Assessments align with education and industry standards to provide employers a trusted evaluation of entry-level technical skills," adds Tim Lawrence, SkillsUSA Executive Director. "Our ultimate goal is to 'lift up' students, both those inside and outside of traditional education programs."

The Advertising & Design, Graphic Communications, and Screen Printing assessments are expected to be available for spring 2010 testing. The Digital File Preparation/Digital File Output and Offset Press Operations/Binding & Finishing assessments are expected to be available for spring 2011 testing. Students who receive passing scores on the assessments will receive co-branded GAERF/SkillsUSA certificates that display GAERF, PrintED, and SkillsUSA logos.