Earning a Marketable Skills Achievement

Marketable Skills Achievement (MSA) is a sequence of courses that meet the minimum standard for program length as specified by business & industry, or the Arizona Workforce Advisory Council and/or Local Workforce Investment Board for the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) program (recommended 6-15 credits for credit courses or 50-599 contact hours (i.e., clock hours or non credit course contact hours). A MSA must possess the following characteristics: 

• The achievement is college-readiness waived;

• The content of the achievement must be recommended by an external employer or workforce advisory committee, or the occupation must appear on the Local Workforce Development Board’s Demand Occupations list; 

• In most cases, the achievement should be composed of technical courses only. However, non-stratified academic courses may be used occasionally if recommended by the external committee and if appropriate for the content of the achievement.

• The achievement prepares students for employment in accordance with guidelines established for WIOA.