Pesticide License Training & Testing
You must be wondering how pesticide license training and testing will look like for the upcoming testing cycle. Let us share with you what we know.
The Illinois Department of Ag and the University of Illinois Pesticide Safety & Education Program (PSEP) have been working very hard the past few months to ensure that operators and applicators can achieve 3-year certification and licenses, taking into account the health and safety guidelines for Covid.
IDA has been very gracious to share with IFCA the basics of how this will work. Details will be coming soon from both IDA and the University of Illinois on how the program will work, but here is a snapshot.
- All general standards and applicator categories will be available to be taken on-line. But in order to meet USEPA requirements for authentication of the person taking the exams, the on-line tests will be proctored. This means you will have a proctoring service in the background of your computer utilizing your computer features to verify your identity and monitor you while you take the exam(s). The U of I is providing the proctoring service and there will be a small fee required to pay for the proctoring. You won't be able to take the exams on a smart phone, you will need a laptop or computer with certain features enabled.
- All pesticide training will be offered by UI in an on-line format only.
- IDA will also offer some in-person testing options, adhering to the 50 or less person Covid requirements. However, the testing locations will not be as many as are normally available.
Based on what we have learned from IDA about this process, IFCA feels confident that this system will work very well. Much more detail is forthcoming, but we wanted to assure you that a plan of action is well underway and gives our industry the option of taking the training and exams on-line. Watch for more information soon.