The new home for the Tech Math course is https://www.skillsprep.org.
SkillsPrep.org is a site that allows you to send your applicants or students directly to purchase access to the Tech Math course. This is the same course available on the PTSI LMS and is a good primer for pre-apprentices to experience the system and other electrical industry courses.
Please read on to learn more about the new location for Tech Math and the skillsprep.org website.
The Tech Math course that was formerly provided via the University of Tennessee Knoxville is no longer available for registration. The new home for the Tech Math course is on http://www.skillsprep.org/. SkillsPrep.org is a site that allows you to send your applicants or students directly to purchase access to the Tech Math course and more courses are coming very soon.
Students purchase the Tech Math online course that is bundled with the Building a Foundation in Mathematics textbook and the recommended TI30XIIs calculator.
Important Note: This course is the same course available on the PTSI LMS. If you would like, IBEW/NECA programs can roster, enroll, and provide access to this course without need of the skillsprep.org website. However, this site was built to replace the UTK Tech Math access and also provide many more options for you to send applicants and the like for preparing to apply to your program.
Tech Math is the first course to launch on the platform with more to come as the Reading Comprehension course was placed recently to now support the needs of those preparing for aptitude exams as well as simply improving reading skills.
The following information explains how skillsprep participants can receive and see various pricing.
Members (Affiliated with IBEW/NECA) of Your Training Location Already in Your Local TMS Roster
Users already rostered in your training location can log into the site with their existing PTSI credentials. By doing so they will receive discounted pricing. This is a convenience for training locations that allow their users to purchase the Tech Math course directly. Their membership in the system is determined by being a user in your TMS roster.
Members (Affiliated with IBEW/NECA) of Your Training Location Not Yet in Your Local TMS Roster
Members associated with IBEW/NECA that are not yet rostered in an IBEW/NECA training location can request access to the system as an affiliated member. This process is the same one that exists today on the PTSI Online Learning System where users can ‘Request Access’. The key is that the registrant knows the name of your apprenticeship training location.
Registering in the SkillsPrep.org system as IBEW/NECA will allow the user to create an account and at the same time send a request for access to the selected Training Location to be added to that training locations roster via the TMS. (Program admins access these requests via the TMS > Access Requests)
Until their access is approved and rostered in the TMS they will have access to SkillsPrep.org as a non-affiliated member. (They will not have discounted pricing.) Once you approve their access request, they will see discounted pricing.
Non-Members (Non-Affiliated with IBEW/NECA) of IBEW/NECA Training Locations
If a user is not IBEW/NECA (not a rostered user in an IBEW/NECA Training Location), as determined by the TMS, they will not get the discounted price benefit.
They can still register to access the course(s) on the site by choosing the ‘Register for Free’ button and choosing ‘I’m not affiliated’. The email address is the item the system checks to see if they exist in a Training Location.
Cool Feature! Previewing Courses
Once Registered in the skillsprep.org website, users can preview the course(s) by clicking the ‘Preview Link’ prior to purchase. You must be logged in to preview a course. Previews show the beginning of a course and any work performed in the preview will not transfer to the actual course if they decide to purchase.
Purchasing Courses
Purchasing courses is a straightforward process.
- Users can easily add the Tech Math Course which includes the Textbook, and Calculator to their shopping cart.
- The checkout process allows users to enter their shipping information and pay for the order with their credit card.
- Users will have immediate access to the online course materials.
- The textbook and calculator will be shipped via UPS to the shipping address users provide.
Quick Recap
- Users in your training location that are rostered in the TMS can simply go to www.skillsprep.org and use their same LMS credentials they use, or have been given to them by you, on the PTSI LMS to log in to skillsprep.org. All users found in IBEW/NECA program rosters will receive and see member (discounted) pricing. This pricing only displays once logged into the skillsprep website and identified as rostered within an IBEW/NECA program.
- The Tech Math Course identifies the Building a Foundation in Mathematics text and TI30XIIS calculator as required materials. At checkout, a person has the option to choose to purchase the course with or without these materials.
- This is the same Tech Math course that supports the current statement in the apprenticeship standards regarding Minimum Qualifications. Each applicant according to the standards must have successfully completed: (i) one full year of high school algebra, (or its equivalent) with a passing grade, or (ii) one semester of post-high school algebra (e.g., Adult Education, Continuing Education, Community College, etc.) with a passing grade, or (iii) the electrical training ALLIANCE’s online Tech Math course.
- Users that are affiliated with IBEW/NECA but are not in yet in your TMS roster can self-register on skillsprep.org as an IBEW/NECA affiliated user. They will be presented with the selection to identify as IBEW/NECA, then select from the list of programs, your program name. An access request will show up on the TMS for the TD/TDA to approve or deny. Until you approve that request, the newly registered user will still have access to the system but will not get the discounted pricing. This pricing only displays once the user is logged in to skillsprep.org and identified as rostered within an IBEW/NECA program.
- Users that are not affiliated with IBEW/NECA that want to take the course can self-register as a non-affiliated user and pay full the course price.
- If an access request is denied by you, the person will continue to be considered not affiliated.
- Users pay for the course themselves via Credit Card.
- Any print or other resources that are not digital, will be shipped directly to users.
- For a comparison of the pricing offered by SkillsPrep.org please see the table below. Non-Affiliated Pricing displays on the website by default. Affiliated pricing only shows to registered users being on an IBEW/NECA TMS Roster. JATC/AJATC pricing is not found on the skillsprep website and only available to programs; it is shown here for comparison only.
In preparing this blog post, we noted an issue with the pricing that had been displaying on the SkillsPrep.org Website. This has been updated to reflect the table above. We are very sorry for any inconvenience.
If you have any questions regarding the SkillsPrep.org website or the Tech Math course, please use the SkillsPrep Support link at the bottom of the SkillsPrep.org website, or contact Steve Strickland, your friendly customer service advisor, at 1.888.652.4007, or via email sstrickland@electricaltrainingalliance.org
Thanks for Reading!