Ohio Students get more Options to Earn Industry-Recognized Credentials

Governor John Kasich

Students in Ohio State’s high school now have 49 more industry-recognized credentials as the Ohio Department of Education added the credentials to guide career-based program development.

This will help students understand and prepare for Ohio’s in-demand jobs and careers.Some students go right into the workforce after earning credentials. For others, the credentials allow students to earn money to help finance college education.

Two of the new credentials include Certified Registered Central Service Technician and Certified Logistics Technician.

The Central service technicians work primarily in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities to sterilize medical equipment for patient care or surgery while a logistics technician makes sure that all supplies and equipment for a certain location are taken care of. This usually involves the choosing, ordering and distributing of important equipment.

Average hourly rate for Certified Registered Central Service Technician is $14.56 per hour. Range is $23,921-43,313. Source: PayScale.com and average hourly rate for Certified Logistics Technician is is $16.71 per hour. Range is $26,837-59,864. Source: PayScale.com.

Superintendent of public instruction Paolo DeMaria, said “We owe a big thanks to Ohio’s businesses for their input on these credentials. This invaluable information is helping show students all the great opportunities for their future success,” “With these new credentials, students can create road maps to a career and even to higher education opportunities.”

Finding, hiring and retaining high-quality employees is a monumental task for businesses. Industry-recognized credentials help employers validate the knowledge and skills of potential employees and saves valuable time in assessing the skills of job applicants.

“ODE’s innovation to allow HUMTOWN PRODUCTS to have insight and input to these new credentials is revolutionary in connecting education to business,” said Mark Lamoncha, president and CEO, HUMTOWN PRODUCTS. “Without them, we are just hiring people that show up to work at a job. These credentials align the graduates with skills that they can perform as a professional in a career.”

One way students can earn a high school diploma is by earning an industry-recognized credential and achieving a workforce readiness score on the WorkKeys assessment.