EDUCATION PRP Certification Test Scores Part 2 In this installment, Jim Hancock, CML, CMST, discusses the benefits of third-party test centers. for testing to make it actually occur. The costs of sending tests to any of these events is pretty substantial, so a minimum number of participants is required to keep your association from losing money. W To mitigate this problem, several years ago, ALOA established a partnership with a third-party test delivery company to offer testing at various facilities nation- wide. This system worked pretty well for its time, but the economics of continuing to do business with this company dictated that a change needed to be made. Two years ago, ALOA partnered with Kryterion, one of the largest third-party testing companies in the world, to help offer these tests at more locations world- wide — not just in the United States — as well as in different languages. While the cost to take these tests through this system are a bit higher than before, a few gained benefits make the added expense palatable. “There are many more locations, including outside of the United States. This gives our foreign members better access for testing.” The New Benefits First, more test centers are available. There are many more locations, includ- ing outside of the United States, as stated. This gives our foreign members better access for testing, should they so desire. Second, multiple languages are avail- able. Once the testing is completely set up — which is still ongoing, believe it or not — the test can be offered in several languages. Along with English, the test- ing will be available in Spanish, French and a few others. Third, record keeping is improved. In the old third-party test center format, once a test was taken and graded, that was pretty much all that was done. There was still a reliance on the certification de- partment to get test results sent to them in a timely manner, and then they had to hand-input the results into a DOS data- base so all the records were in one file. By hand inputting, I mean the ALOA staff member was literally having to grade the test a second time through DOS to get the info in the database. In the new sys- tem, a record is created as you register 54 KEYNOTES MAY 2015 hat has long been an issue with the ALOA PRP testing has been the inability to take the tests anywhere but at conventions, local association meetings, vendor shows and in the Dallas head- quarters. While the frequency of these events has increased over the years, there’s no guarantee that enough people will register for the test and — like the paper testing explained prior — all the info goes into the system at that time without having to duplicate the efforts. Getting Started Should you decide to take a PRP test through this system, the process is rela- tively simple. You go to the ALOA web- site, www.aloa.org, and click on the Cer- tification and Testing tab on the leſt hand side of the home page. From there, click on the “PRP Test Procedures and Host In- structions” tab on the page that opens up. This will explain the process and pricing for the testing. Once you have read that info and are ready, click on the tab below that says REGISTER FOR PRP TESTING and follow the instructions. You’ll then pick the test or tests you wish to take as well as choose the location near- est you and a date and time to attend the test sitting. You then show up on that date — earlier than the test time — with proper identification, and you’re ready to go. Obviously, once we begin using hands- on components to the testing, the third- party center’s role will change in the over- all scheme of the PRP procedure. But for now, this is the most convenient — not the cheapest — way to get your certifica- tion testing done. Part three of this series will deal di- rectly with the addition of a hands-on RP testing. Hancock, CML, CMST, A’s education manager, an his locksmithing ca- r at the age of 8 in his dfather’s lock shop in s worked in every aspect hop tech to mobile tech to operations management. In 2003 and 2009, he was presented with the ALOA ACE Award as Instructor of the Year. You can reach him at [email protected] or (214) 819-9733. WWW.ALOA.ORG
