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PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning Partners with Community Colleges to Deliver a New Way to Train

Company introduces PRIMEed to Train Maintenance Technicians

March 13, 2003

Carrollton, TX -- PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning, a PRIMEDIA company and the leading provider of integrated learning solutions for more than eight million professionals, announced today it has partnered with community colleges to offer PRIMEed, a new maintenance technician training solution. The partnership between PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning and community colleges makes this first-of-its-kind training program available to thousands of companies that require flexible, web-delivered training combined with hands-on performance evaluations.

PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning provides its partner colleges a complete library of 78 Web-delivered maintenance technician training courses, the study guides and instruction manuals for each of the hands-on performance evaluations, and a comprehensive learning management system (LMS). Colleges supply the equipment and expert instructors for the hands-on performance evaluations and manage and administer the program for companies that enroll employees in the PRIMEed program.

Greenville Technical College in South Carolina helped pilot PRIMEed and has enrolled hundreds of students into the program. "By offering PRIMEed, we've been able to significantly reduce companies' training costs while offering flexible training that delivers real-world results," said Ben Dillard, Greenville Technical College's Vice President of Economic Development and Continuing Education.

Firms such as Solutia, Fuji Photo Films, and Tyco were quick to enroll their maintenance technicians in the PRIMEed program at Greenville Tech.

"The average age of the most skilled maintenance technicians is now over 50," explained William R. Joiner, Vice President and General Manager of the Industrial Services Group of PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning. "As these skilled workers leave the workforce, the absence of their expertise leaves new workers without the guidance of senior technicians. So industrial companies are challenged with finding more effective methods for rapidly bringing new hires up to speed as well as cross-training existing technicians. We created PRIMEed to meet the needs of industrial customers who want flexible training for their employees and who want their employees to be able to quickly apply that knowledge on the plant floor."

The PRIMEed program consists of competency evaluation tests designed to identify individual student's knowledge gaps, Web-delivered maintenance technician training courses available whenever and wherever is convenient for the student, posttests to ensure students understand the training's key concepts, study and instruction guides for the hands-on performance evaluations administered on the college campus, and the PRIMEed LMS which enables colleges to easily manage the training program from enrolling students and scheduling hands-on performance evaluations, to communicating the next step in each student's training program to issuing certificates of completion.

More information on the PRIMEed maintenance technician training program can be found at www.pwpl.com/industrial or by calling 800-848-1717.

About PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning

PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning, a PRIMEDIA company, is the leading provider of Integrated Learning Solutions for more than 8 million professionals in the industrial, healthcare, banking, automotive, fire & emergency, government and law & security markets. PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning's unique offerings include the world's largest satellite-delivered distance learning services; CD-ROM, Web-based and video training programs; and an Internet-enabled learning management system, which better enables corporations and government agencies to manage, track and measure their in-house training efforts. This unparalleled combination of content, custom solutions, technology and "any time/anywhere" delivery represents the state of the art in the fast-growing business-to-business training market. For more details on PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning, visit www.pwpl.com