WHAT IS ERS?

The Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) Benefits Employment Service Agencies Assisting Income Assistance Recipients

 "Having worked with the Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) for a number of years, I can strongly attest to the benefits of using this tool.  Both clients and staff have been amazed by how well the ERS assists them in all aspects of working towards employment, whether for upgrading, job searching or referrals to programs.  

The ERS is very easy to administer and provides a wealth of information.  For management, it provides roll-up data that is beneficial in developing and receiving the funding for client programming.

I am very impressed by the ERS and the support we have received from the developers."

ERS Enhances Services Supporting First Nations Employment Transitions

“In the BC provincial Training for Jobs program, I had the opportunity to use the ERS with groups of income assistance recipients wanting to enter or return to the workforce. The clients were impressed with the creative colorful visual of where they were, where they could go and after the retake, where they had gone.  I administered the ERS at our intake counseling session, when they had completed the eight-week work re-entry course and after they had been working at their new job for between one and two weeks. The scale showed the positive move forward the clients had made and they saw it like a badge of accomplishment.

I am excited to take the lead for our agency in introducing the tool to another client base of income assistance clients.  I really love the ERS role in the assessment process. The tool is quick and easy to use with training and then when it is printed in color it gives both the client and the case worker a visual to see progress and where there is need for intervention.”

Praise for “Weaving Soft Skills” Article (Ward & Riddle, 2014)

“Thank you for your article 'Weaving Soft Skills Development into Everyday Employment Services in BC'.  It is an excellent article, surfacing the widespread client need for soft skills, the benefits when clients gain the skills, and providing strategic approaches for career practitioners to help their clients gain the needed skills. The article can also be used by career practitioners to gain support from their managers to 'weave' into their services what the clients really need.”

College Mentorship Program Incorporates ERS in Coaching Students for Workplace Success

“The Employment Readiness Scale™ is a great tool that allows me to support the students in areas where they require job coaching.  It also provides me the opportunity to create an action plan for the students so they can become successful in the workplace.Once the students complete the Develop MENTOR program, they are able to see how their knowledge of employment has greatly improved since their first assessment.  The ERS also confirms that the student is employment-ready which increases their self-esteem and confidence in their skills and abilities to find work and to start a career successfully. I strongly recommend the ERS to all support workers who work closely with clients who are looking for employment.”

Employment Readiness Scale™ Validates Broken Cycles by Gang-Involved Youth in Gang Exit Programs in Greater Toronto

“Years ago, the Canadian Training Institute (CTI) was having problems showing that their gang intervention was effective. Outcomes were great with 80% graduation rates and almost 70% of youth completing the intervention with a job and/or returning to formal education. While these were impressive numbers for gang-involved youth breaking their cycles of gang involvement, criticism grew that these young people would have found jobs on their own and were already ready to work without our involvement (criticism I admit we may have given more attention to than it deserved).

So we began thinking that we needed quantitative and qualitative pre and post assessments from a third party assessor to validate what we knew we were doing. The Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) came to the rescue as a gift offering more than we thought it could.

We use the ERS to measure our young people's movement in employment readiness over the 24 weeks we have them in our gang exit intervention program. It’s remarkable seeing dozens of young people shift from not ready for employment to moderately and fully ready for employment. These are results our doubters and naysayers are silenced by. All are also enthused that young people are capable of shifting and improving their readiness to enter the labour market with verified data to support this movement.Beyond merely the movement, for young people, the ERS tool has become synonymous with employment preparation within our Breaking the Cycle program. The ERS serves as an intervention in itself suggesting stuck points (as one would with a client experiencing trauma), while also recommending steps to get young people from inertia towards entering the labour market.The ERS has been a remarkable support in the achievement of our outcomes, in verifying our results, and in educating those involved in mentoring, case management and skill development for young people entering the labour market.”