In recent years, those of us who are studying or taking assessment tests have moved from libraries, physical books and test centers, to laptops, tablets, and the web in general. Convenience is obviously a major factor here, but there is also the added bonus of being able to take courses and tests that would otherwise have been out of reach for some people, depending on their geographical location. Couple these two factors with the other added bonus of allowing prospective or current employers to see how well trained or suited a potential employee might be to a certain role, and it is obvious that training and testing is going to be done in the virtual space more and more as time goes on.
Attainable assessments
For employers, this new trend can be extremely useful when you consider how much time and money is spent on sending staff away to train for a new role, or to test centers to gain the needed qualifications. Websites such as iPrep can allow a company to see whether a staff member is suitable for a role before they take a test, by putting them through their paces in similar industry-standard assessments. Not only does this give the employer an insight into the competency of the employee, but it also gives nervous employees invaluable experience in taking tests that are extremely similar to the ones they will be taking in the near future. This sort of practice has only been possible since the emergence of websites such as iPrep, whereas staff members of 'yesteryear' would have to study and then take expensive tests without access to such tools to prepare them. For employees who would be great in a certain role, but find themselves choking when it comes to actual assessments, the importance of this sort of practice cannot be overstated, and is a major reason why more people are actually taking these tests than ever before.
Learning at your own pace
In the busy modern world, the convenience factor of learning online has been a major reason we have seen an increase in post-school education and work-based training. Many of us are working longer hours than we probably imagined we would, leaving little time for furthering ourselves through education. In the past, if you wished to take a course in a given subject, you first had to find a local center that was open during your free time (which was troublesome if you worked normal hours), and secondly, had to hope that the particular education center you could get to would provide the course you desired. If either your availability or choice of course didn't match that of the education center, you were simply out of luck (and options). With courses now available from anywhere in the world that can get an internet connection, and courses that you can do in your own time, learning new skills has never been easier.
Countless options
The fact these courses and practice assessments can simply be distributed over the web also tends to keep costs down for the course and test providers, which has an effect that is two-fold. Prospective students save money, and in turn can take more courses than if they were to study at a 'bricks and mortar' education center, and the number of students that find this way of learning financially viable also increases exponentially (something that has become especially obvious in countries like India). With the practice tests in particular, having them available in large numbers, on diverse topics, and at reasonable prices, also encourages those who are looking to either progress up their career ladder or change direction completely, that it is possible to do so. While other reasons have been cited as to why people change career much more readily these days than in the past, the huge boom in online education is surely something that aids and encourages this approach too.
With a whole plethora of ways to learn online, more of us than ever before will be turning to online assessment tests as a way to show off our skills and propel ourselves into better and more suitable roles. In days gone by, studying would have been expensive, as would taking the test itself (especially so if you fail multiple times). Now, with online courses readily available, and practice tests also a mouse-click or two away, a new level playing field in education has emerged that allows those of us with a yearning to get our careers back on track to look no further than the devices at our fingertips. Your phone, tablet, or laptop is a wonderful tool to watch a Netflix marathon on, but equally, it could be the key to helping you achieve a much more fulfilling work life. You can learn, practice, and achieve the skills you need from the comfort of your own home, the only thing you need to provide is the enthusiasm.
