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| Student Char Herrick, President Joe Mulford and Interim Director of Student Affairs Shawn Reynolds celebrate the opening of Pine Technical & Community College’s expanded Testing Center. |
Pine Technical & Community College’s expanded testing center
provides opportunities to community members who are seeking career advancement
through certification exams, as well as potential and current students who need
Accuplacer, make-up exams or accommodated testing. PTCC has been able to boost
the testing services by bringing their current testing center on to the main
campus and nearly tripling the number of testing stations.
"We
identified a need to provide expanded testing services for working adults in
our region, as well as our current students,” said Mulford. “The expanded
testing center provides a number of certification exams that help our regional
workforce advance their careers. It’s unique in the region. Our community
members used to travel to the metro or Duluth for the same certification exams.
Now, they can take their exam without the hassle of a long commute and a full
day off of work.”
Originally
established in the Pine Innovation Center, the PTCC Testing Center was launched
to provide professional certification testing – such as CISCO, Microsoft,
CompTIA and more -- for regional IT employees and graduates from Pine's IT
programs. The Testing Center has now grown to include professional certifications
beyond IT.
Additionally,
there was limited space on campus for students who needed make up tests and
accommodated testing facilities. Students seeking the Accuplacer exam are now
able to schedule an assessment at a time that’s convenient for them.
“Due to
increasing enrollments, we needed to provide more flexibility with our testing
services for our current students,” Mulford said. “Many of our students are
working adults with families. The Testing Center is open Monday through Friday
and provides our students with more options.”
The Rural Information
Technology Alliance grant helped to fund the expansion, which included computer
work stations, privacy carrels, noise canceling headphones and video monitoring
equipment. “Our facilities and IT staff did a great job converting the space
and setting up the technology,” added Mulford.
The testing
center is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday for current students. Hours for
professional certification exams may vary. Please see www.pine.edu/student-services/testing for a list of testing partners.
