A T&G FRESH START, LLC

If you are ready to test and are about using your MERA Grant voucher licenses, after you’ve requested your licenses by filling out the Customer Service/Business of Retail License Order form (attached), then do the following steps. 

 

If you have licenses purchased by your school district, you must sign into that account, which is a different account than MERA’s. Penn Foster Account.  If you are using district-purchased licenses, for Step 3, change your organization name to your school district name (most likely) and your location name to your school’s name (most likely).  Call me if you’re confused on this.

 

SCREENING TEST:  Make sure your students have completed the Screening test and earned 70% or higher.  This is required by MERA in order for the student to “earn” their license.  They can access the online version of the Screening test by going to www.atgfreshstart.com, clicking on the Student tab and then clicking the online Screening Test for CS button.  They sign in with their name and the passcode is “voucher.”  If your students are taking the Business of Retail Screening test, select that link or button.  Students will use "license" as the passcode.  Make sure students use their first and last name as their username.

 

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USING LICENSES PURCHASED BY MERA GRANT

Whether you are giving the Customer Service or the Business of Retail exam, you use the same proctor account and follow these directions:

1. To have students register for the exam, have each click this link:  www.atgfreshstart.com.   Students then go to the Students tab (at top) and will click the graphic at the top of the screen to get to it to the NRF RiseUp registration screen.

2. On the small screen that pops up, have them click Enroll Now (at the bottom)

3. The organization name for your MERA vouchers is MERA School year 22-23

4. The location name is (your school’s name with your name—it should pop up once they start typing the school name)     

5. The Program name is Customer Service & Sales – Exam Only.  If you are testing for Business of Retail, the Program Name is Business of Retail – Exam Only.

6. Once they submit this page, each student will get an email from Penn Foster stating with their Student ID # and that they have registered at Penn Foster.  (You can find their Student ID# under your Learners tile.  It is the 8 digit # in front of their name.)

7. You, the proctor, must sign into your MERA account, (this is not the same account as you use to get licenses from your district administrator).  Your username/password was set up for you in October.  If you need the link to sign in as a proctor, click the graphic at the top of this page on left side.

8. Click on Admissions tile then approve each student’s enrollment.  Students then get another email from Penn Foster stating they have been admitted to Penn Foster, they are given a Student ID #, and a license has been issued to them (automatically-as long as you have licenses in your account). Their name is moved to the Learners tile.  If a student does not get the email with their Student ID#, you can look up their Student ID # under your Learner’s tile or Proctor's tile..

9. Students finish the registration process by signing back in with their student ID # (same link as in Step 1).  Once they do, they will be asked to set up their username and password.  At the point, the license will be considered used and cannot be reallocated back to your account if the student does not test.

10. Student will be asked to enter a daily testing password.  The proctor can find this under your Proctor tile in your Penn Foster account (at the bottom of the page).  Put the password on your board or overhead.  Students can just begin testing once they put in the password and click the exam name.

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IF USING LICENSES PURCHASED BY YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT

If you have Customer Service or Business of Retail licenses purchased by your school district and then transferred to your district Penn Foster account, you must sign into that account and replace Steps 1-4 above with these steps:

1. To have students register for the exam, have each click this link:  www.atgfreshstart.com.   Students then go to the Students tab (at top) and will click the graphic at the top of the screen to get to it to the NRF RiseUp registration screen.

2. On the small screen that pops up, have them click Enroll Now (at the bottom)

3. The organization name for your MERA vouchers is (type in your school district’s name)

4. The location name is (type in your school’s name)     
    

Between 1-2 days students will receive an email with a link to their certificate.  You can also access their certificate,

download and print the certificates under your Certificate Documents tile.

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GETTING AN UNUSED LICENSE BACK TO YOUR ACCOUNT

If you enroll a student a 2nd time by accident, or if you enroll a student who never sets up their username and password, you can get that license back from Penn Foster.  To do so use the link below to request that a license assigned to a student but never used can be returned to your proctor account as a reallocation:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=NyffwHoW40uSo1-YIN2-ht1Y3mTTIFDqNHm8eGWkm5URE0wMThKUVBRREZBWU4zSU5PWkEzOTZGTC4u

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STUDENTS WHO FAIL THE EXAM

If you have a student fails either the Customer Service exam or the Business of Retail exam, you must get a different license that is the same as the original test name but has Retake at the end of the name of the license.

Example:              Regular credential license name might be Customer Service & Sales-Exam Only

                              Retake credential license name will be Customer Service & Sales-Retake

 

The MERA Grant does not provide a student a 2nd license, so your school district administrator who has the Partner Account at Penn Foster will need to make this purchase for you at $25/retake (instead of $55/license).  This person is usually a CTE Supervisor but can be another person.

 

For this person to purchase the Retake license, have them go to https://pfdev8.mybigcommerce.com/additional-products/ to select and purchase the Customer Service & Sales – Retake exam license or Business of Retail—Retake exam license.  Students can retake the exam immediately, but we suggest you have them study before retaking it.  They have 30 days to retest.

 

The administrator will need to transfer the license to your Penn Foster account which you use for your school district—not the one you use for MERA grants (if you have a grant).  The student will need to register all over again  to your district account.  The student’s first account (where they failed) is no longer good to use, so they must re-register.

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ARE YOU MISSING LICENSES?

Please check the following:

1. Did you possibly enroll any students twice, but they only used 1 license?

2. Did any student test 2 times and use 2 licenses?

3. Check your Learner’s tile to see if anyone is listed there who did not test.  Do not count any that failed.

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To figure out how many licenses you have enrolled/used,

1. Count how many students have their certificates in your Certificate Documents tile.

2. Count how many students failed in your Learners tile.

3. Count how many students are listed in your Learner's tile who haven't tested.

4. The total you get is how many licenses you have used and enrolled.