Ryan Bailey is on his way to fulfilling a lifelong dream- opening his own construction business. A new program in West Virginia is helping his achieve that goal. "(I like) knowing that I can go somewhere with the degree, knowing that I have the ability. I know enough about the construction business to do well in the business," said Bailey.

He graduated from Sissonville High School and attended Ben Franklin Career Center to get his certificate in Building Construction. Then, he took things even further. He earned the Gold level on WorkKeys assessments. It's a job skills assessment system developed by ACT, a familier company to high school juniors and seniors. "The test really shows you what you need to know for a construction degree, and stuff like that, shows you where you'll need to go."

Bailey is just one of five success stories honored Tuesday morning at the state Capitol by Governor Joe Manchin. It's not just in the construction field. Each honoree has a different career path, including sales, respiratory therapy, education, and truck driving.

The WorkKeys program launched in October 2008. Since then, they've issued more than 10,000 certificates. "When we first started this program, we weren't really sure how many folks would be interested in getting involved, and we didn't know how much support we would have from all the different partners throughout the state, and it's been tremendous," said Russell Fry. He's the acting executive director for WorkForce West Virginia.

It comes at a time when every job skill is critical in finding and maintaining employment. "In West Virginia, as well as across the country, I'm sure, we now have to look at what skills sets do we have in case we need to move on into a different vocation," said Fry.

Hopefully, he says, it's just a strong foundation to build on.