Excel Together West Virginia

Unleashing the potential of all West Virginians

‍Excel Together West Virginia is a new statewide initiative designed to provide every West Virginian with an opportunity to build their educational and workforce skills and confidence.

Excel Together West Virginia introduces the CSM Certificate backed by the self-paced, online CSM Course. CSM uses the world’s most-advanced personalized educational technology to help people of ALL academic abilities succeed.

Excel Together West Virginia works in partnership with local organizations -- schools, colleges, adult education programs, workforce development, employers, and government at the city, county and state level. Read more below about our initiative and the benefits that it can bring to individuals and your organization. Join us in boosting the skills, confidence, and opportunities of West Virginians!

Excel Together brings CSM to West Virginia

CSM Course

The self-paced, online CSM Course develops High Performance competencies.‍

CSM is the world's first and only next-generation learning technology that not only personalizes instruction in the students' academic skills, but also simultaneously in how the student learns, how they act, and how they feel -- these are High Performance skills.

High Performance

problem-solving strategies and mindsets
the ability to learn effectively and independently
the intention to excel supported by persistence and attention to detail
and most importantly, self-efficacy, a person’s belief in their ability to succeed at what they put their mind to

CSM is patient and supportive -- if a person is having trouble with a skill, it will take them to another skill where it thinks they can be more successful. CSM congratulates them on evidence of persistence and good learning behaviors. When a person learns a skill, CSM tells them what percentage of college grads and all adults could do that skill (often well under 50%).

In a national evaluation against "gold standard" online courses from publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson, CSM had the largest math and literacy gains, and the highest student engagement. And in a program for people who never finished high school, on completing CSM, over a quarter entered and showed success in associate degree programs.

CSM is for everyone. The same CSM Course is taken by people who didn't complete high school, and also corporate managers with college degrees. The CSM Course is used in schools, colleges, career and technical education (CTE), adult education and workforce development programs, and workplaces. In an education context, CSM builds not only college math skills, but also more general academic success skills. In a work context, CSM builds transferable "employability skills" that are useful in every sector and job and are valued by employers.

CSM Certificate

The CSM Certificate, earned on completion of the CSM Course, demonstrates High Performance skills to colleges, employers, and the wider community.

Individuals: Take CSM

CSM is for everyone, even if school isn't your thing. It's patient and supportive. And it's free to all adults in West Virginia, with a personal coach, through the Office of Adult Education!

The CSM Certificate earns math credit at BridgeValley Community and Technical College and top online colleges! In addition, the CSM Certificate demonstrates both CSM's High Performance and college math skills to employers, letting you stand out from other job candidates.

If you've struggled with math or more generally with school, or have been out of school for many years and feel rusty, CSM is incredibly supportive. It includes remediation down to 5th grade math, you move at your own pace, CSM focuses on things you're doing well, and the course is designed to start building your learning muscles from the first hour.

Individuals

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Employers: Recognize and use CSM

The CSM Certificate certifies High Performance skills like college-level quantitative reasoning, professional literacy, problem solving mindsets and strategies, the ability to learn effectively on your own, attention to detail, and persistence.

By recognizing the CSM Certificate in hiring, you can hire the 21st Century workforce that you need now, and also encourage students and adults in your community to take CSM to build your future workforce.

You can also partner with the Office of Adult Education to access CSM for your employees with personal coaches, at your workplace, at no cost! Excel Together will help you in planning both existing employee and workforce development programs.

Employers

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Unemployment claimants: Take CSM

If you're on unemployment benefits, your job search requirements are waived for up to 8 weeks while you take CSM. While you're not employed, this is an opportunity to build a variety of skills -- not only math, but High Performance skills that are valued by employers and demonstrated by the CSM Certificate. The CSM Certificate will help you stand out from other job applicants.

CSM is designed to increase your confidence, which can take a hit if you're having trouble getting a job. And after you complete CSM, you can continue with the Career Strategies mini-course that comes free with CSM, which will help build an internal career coach by teaching the skills of making career decisions. Career Strategies also includes links to free resources list training opportunities, careers and job boards in West Virginia.

Unemployment Claimants

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Community programs: Offer CSM

Whether you're running a high-school equivalency program, a college transition program, a workforce readiness or workforce development program, CSM can serve as a core part of the program. For many of these programs, participants have wildly different skills, and CSM's next-generation personalized learning technology meets them where they are and accelerates their progress, even if they start with deeply remedial math and literacy skills.

Community
‍Programs

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Student at BridgeValley Community and Technical College

CSM was key in changing her life trajectory...

"...so now I don't have to take any math for my associate’s. Now looking back, I felt like I wasn't deserving of a college degree, because I couldn't get through basic math. I had kinda given up, really. To me, CSM saved me!”

Click here to read all of Brittany's story...

Lynn White, SVP Education, National Oilwell Varco (Fortune 500 manufacturer)

Remarks about CSM made at the White House

"Our pilot group has indicated that CSM teaches in a manner that is non-threatening and less frustrating with a strong focus on persistence, attention to detail and improved knowledge retention. In short, it teaches our workers how to learn. ...CSM will result in a more confident, self-reliant workforce that ...has a changed mindset from 'Getting the job done' to 'Getting the job done more effectively and efficiently'..."

Click here for Lynn White's full remarks

"Since 2008 National Oilwell Varco or NOV has invested roughly $70 Million in internal training programs. We now recognize that we are pretty good at developing and delivering the technical side of things, however, we have found that upon completion of the training, some of our workforce continues to struggle with retaining their newly gained knowledge and how to best apply new concepts. The end result is technically competent employees that perform at an average level, or as [SeeMore Impact Labs] puts it, a C level.

Within our own internal courses or the training grants there has been very little focus on soft skills, in particular how to improve in areas of critical thinking and problem solving. These skills are essential elements to NOV as we aim to develop a workforce that is empowered, can solve problems effectively and efficiently, and possess the critical thinking skills that lead to innovation and higher performance levels.

To address these areas of need we turned to CSM. Feedback from our pilot tests has confirmed that CSM has the potential to help us achieve our workforce objectives by providing and excellent foundation for critical thinking and problem solving.

Our workforce ranges from middle school graduates with GED’s to advanced degree holders with various skill levels, so development of internal training programs has been challenging based on the individual ability to learn. CSM understands that individuals learn differently and provides the flexibility to use alternative training methods to achieve the goals.

Our pilot group has indicated that CSM teaches in a manner that is non-threatening and less frustrating with a strong focus on persistence, attention to detail and improved knowledge retention. In short, it teaches our workers how to learn.

Our hope is that the partnership with CSM will result in a more confident, self-reliant workforce that is more soft skill competent and has a changed mindset from “Getting the job done” to “Getting the job done more effectively and efficiently” and that NOV will ultimately benefit with improved quality and reduced cost in our products and services."

Board of Advisors

Our Board of Advisors are committed to the improvement of West Virginia skills:

Jonathon Compton -- Deputy Director of Workforce Development for WorkForce WV
Dr. Teresa Eagle -- Dean, College of Education & Professional Development at Marshall University
Amber Furman -- Director of Workforce Development, West Virginia Hospital Association
Mendy Marshall -- Executive Director, Office of Adult Education and Workforce Development, WV Department of Education

You can find more information about these individuals here.