Issue 12, October 12, 2020
Illinois Pesticide Applicator/Operator Training & Testing Options for 2020-2021
University of Illinois’ Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) and Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA) are taking steps to provide safe training and testing options for pesticide applicators and operators. PSEP will not offer in-person training during fall 2020 or spring 2021. The decision to cancel in-person training was based on the health of not only training clinic attendees, but the staff and the surrounding community with whom we share spaces. Additionally, in-person training was not feasible given the current restrictions which limit event attendance to the lesser of 50 persons OR 50% of the overall room capacity. In place of in-person training, PESP plans to offer the following resources to individuals preparing for Illinois Pesticide Certification Exams during the COVID-19 pandemic:
Training Option A: Online Training
In place of PSEP’s in-person training clinics, online courses will be made available for most of our traditional training categories. To best serve our diverse clientele, the courses are designed to be completed asynchronously (i.e. on your own schedule and at your own pace). Each course will guide you through lessons instructed by PSEP specialists, and keep you engaged with plenty of exam-prep questions along the way.
Training Option B: Self-Study Publications
If you would rather study with a pen and paper instead of an iPad, PSEP has an option for you as well. Training Manuals are available for each category of licensure. Accompanying fill-in-the-blank-style workbooks are available for common categories, which will help guide you through the manual and prepare you for the associated exam.
Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA) anticipates 15,000 – 20,000 certification exams will be offered during the 2021 certification year. In a typical year, most of these exams would be administered at in-person training and testing clinics. In the absence of in-person training clinics, IDA will utilize online testing and limited in-person testing to meet certification needs.
Testing Option A: Online Testing
Certification exams will be available in an online format through a commercial proctoring service. Exam length and time allotment will be similar to that of in-person testing. However, individuals will need to schedule each exam with the proctoring service, and pay the service’s $12 proctoring fee.
Testing Option B: In-Person Testing
For those needing an alternative to online testing, IDA will continue to offer in-person testing for all certification exams. Due to social-distancing requirements and occupancy restrictions, there will be limited availability of in-person testing sessions. IDA is working to increase location availability, and this will likely evolve rapidly over the next several months.
We are working to provide access to training and testing as soon as possible. With that in mind, the planned rollout of online training and testing will roughly follow the traditional availability of training sessions. Figure 1 shows the tentative schedule. To keep up to date with training and testing availability options, please visit: http://pesticidesafety.illinois.edu
Author:
Travis Cleveland