Institutions can choose to seek EWS programmatic certification at two different levels of distinction:
Level II: Program exceeds minimum standards for EWS Programmatic Certification evidencing alignment to ACCSC EWS standards in all six ACCSC Essential Workforce Skills competency areas.
Level I: Program meets minimum standards for EWS Programmatic Certification evidencing alignment to ACCSC EWS standards in four ACCSC EWS competency areas of the institution's choosing.
ACCSC has adopted the taxonomy of essential workforce skills developed by MaxKnowledge Inc. as part of the CareerPrepped platform, a lifelong career success system adopted by ACCSC as a member service. The taxonomy was developed through an extensive meta-analysis of many existing global soft skills frameworks. It was chosen by ACCSC because it is flexible, not circumscribed to any one existing taxonomy, yet mappable to many. Moreover, it's written in plain language, making the taxonomy easier to read, understand, and use, all of which are practical considerations for program implementation.
ACCSC's taxonomy comprises six competency areas, each encompassing a specific set of identified and defined essential workforce skills, providing a reliable source necessary to enable program alignment mapping. Click each competency area below to see the set of essential workforce skills it encompasses. When viewing the skills, you can click each one to see how it's defined.
