The ERS offers a unique combination of benefits to clients, agencies and sponsors of career and employment services.  It provides a quick, comprehensive initial employability assessment, with a detailed feedback report, and an action planning tool.  Roll-up reports help the agency identify the programs and services clients need, demonstrate client improvement, and assess the effectiveness of interventions.  This roll-up capability can provide  objective input for program planning and accountability reporting.  In addition to its use in service environments, it also offers potential as a research tool, e.g., looking at patterns of need across clients and agencies, and comparing the effectiveness of interventions by examining pre-post scores on the ERS.

The ERS was developed and field tested over a period of three years with a total of 758 clients.  It has demonstrated an ability to correctly predict 80% of the time whether or not a person will be successfully employed within 12 weeks. The ERS has three gateways:  Client, Agency, and Sponsor.  The initial entry point to the public portion of each gateway to the Canadian site in English and French is at www.EmploymentReadiness.org  (the US site in both English and Spanish is at www.EmploymentReadiness.com). The attached Handout on the ERS includes Demonstration Instructions that will allow a look around the secure portions of the site.  Most of the relevants aspects of the site can be viewed, including client Feedback Reports and the agency report functions, but not the actual questions that clients answer.

Licenses to use the ERS (i.e., providing access codes to the secure portions of each gateway) are based on three-part pricing.  There is a one-time set-up fee to establish the access codes and reporting links.  There is an annual fee for access to the reporting functions that Provide program review and accountability reporting.  And there is a per-client access code fee that allows each client to take the ERS up to three times. Prices per access code depend on the number of access codes being purchased, with significant discounts for higher volumes.

In downloadable form below, there is a Summary of Research that provides background information establishing the validity and reliability of the tool.  A second document is provided that gives further detail of the ERS.

Summary of research on the Employment Readiness Scale

Preview Info - ERS Summary Research.doc - 83.50 Kb

Contains a summary of the background to the ERS development, its funding, the underpinning research and the research results.

Further detail on the Employment Readiness Scale

Preview Info - ERS Further background information..doc - 64.50 Kb

Contains further detail on the ERS, including its uses, benefits, and demonstration instructions.