Welcome back GOLA users  
GOLA recently celebrated 4.5 million tests taken since its launch in 2002. There are over 220 tests available on GOLA. 

List of available GOLA summative tests with test durations
List of available GOLA Underpinning Knowledge Tests (UKTs) with test durations

Updated: 19 May 2011

1. Instructions for the next mandatory ESM and Administrator upgrade

The upgrade of GOLA Enterprise Site Manager (ESM) and Administrator software will be available from 12:00 Sunday 22 May 2011 (UK). From this time you will be prompted to install the upgrade of the newest version of the software.

You will have a 63 day grace period to install the upgrade so there is no immediate need to upgrade. Only from Monday 18 July 2011 will the upgrade become mandatory. You will not be able to continue testing until this has been completed. This is intended to give you sufficient time to install the upgrade without significant impact on your testing.

Both standard and MSI installation routes are available. Where appropriate please speak to your IT advisor to agree on the most suitable option for your particular GOLA set-up.

Support materials include:
Standard (default) installation instructions (PDF, 446 KB)
or
Windows Installer Technology (MSI) installation instructions (PDF, 361 KB)

Important upgrade notes:

• If you are a sub-user on the account please consult first with the managing account holder or technical contact before proceeding with this upgrade.
• Full administrative rights are required to install the upgrade. Please ensure you have the appropriate access and staff available when you want to upgrade.
• Please upload all outstanding results in ESM prior to attempting the software upgrade. Doing this ensures completed result data is not lost permanently from the system.

Please read the instructions carefully before proceeding. If you require further support concerning this or other GOLA technical matters please contact the GOLA Technical helpdesk via email golatechnical@pearson.com or phone +44 (0)845 241 0070.

2. Planned GOLA system outages

There will be a number of outages to GOLA software systems over the next couple of months:

• Sunday 17 July 00:00 to 12:00 (UK time)
  
  During this period all online access to GOLA systems will be unavailable, including:
• CATGlobal website (www.catglobal.com/gola)
• ESM Server software for on-line test delivery which impacts new test file downloads and test result uploads
  Please note: GOLA Test scheduling can continue in this period via the City & Guilds Walled Garden but the booking requests will not be processed until CATGlobal becomes available again at 12:00.

If you have testing planned for these periods please consider rescheduling or downloading the tests in advance and taking them offline. If you do test in this period we highly recommend downloading tests at least 24 hours in advance by logging into ESM. This ensures the test files are downloaded correctly in advance prior to this period of downtime. The test can then be delivered off-line and results uploaded when an online connection to the CATGlobal website is re-established following completion of this maintenance.

We apologise for any inconvenience as we aim to keep disruption to an absolute minimum.

3. Update your Technical Contact person details in CATGlobal

Can we ask all managing account holders to make use of the new Technical Contact fields within the 'Test Center Info' page of www.catglobal.com/gola. By updating your account contact details we hope to provide a more comprehensive contact and communication channel for all key GOLA contacts at your centre.

Please make use of the 'forward message' facility at the top of the email to forward to any colleagues impacted by this change.

4. Functional Skills GOLA test preparations

Functional Skills (FS) tests for English Reading and Writing L1 and L2 are available now through GOLA.

Please be aware of the new FS English GOLA test durations below.  To avoid the potential for 702 booking errors please advise users that all FS GOLA tests should be spaced by at least 90 minutes.  Remember, if a candidate finishes the first test early then the 4 hour unlock period can be used to start the next test immediately afterwards

To ensure your test centre is ready to perform the tests without issue please check the following:

The current ESM/Administrator upgrade delivers the functionality used by City & Guilds to deliver the new tests. Therefore by upgrading now you will ensure that your centre is able to deliver the new format tests.

Please note that Macromedia Flash version 10 will also be required on all Test Taker workstations delivering FS tests. You can check your existing Flash version by clicking on http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

If you are required to install or upgrade your Flash Player to a later version:

Ensure only one installation of Flash Player Active X is installed on your test taker computer. Please uninstall/remove any earlier version to achieve this.
Install/upgrade Adobe Flash Player via your Internet Explorer browser.
Ensure the Windows account used to login to the Delivery / Testing machines has Full Read/Write/Editable permissions granted to the following file locations:
C:\Windows\System32\Macromedia

C:\Documents and Settings\*Account Login Name*\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player

C:\Documents and Settings\* Account Login Name *\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

C:\Program Files\Promissor

Failure to install Flash correctly may cause the rich text item used in Functional Skills tests to not work properly.

If you encounter any problems with the Flash Player 10 Active X installation on your test taker computers, then please note the following troubleshooting tips provided by Adobe http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19166.html

You can verify your Flash installation and readiness for Functional Skills testing by running the Flash based navigation test (9898-997) as outlined below. The ability to type into the text fields presented within the navigation test will confirm readiness.

The Functional Skills version of the Navigation Test (9898-997) is now available through the Walled Garden. Please take this opportunity to schedule a dummy test using the 'NAVTEST' candidate to check that your system is set-up correctly. Remember that all GOLA Navigation tests are free of charge. Functional Skills support information is available via www.cityandguilds.com/functionalskills.

The transition of GOLA test scheduling is now complete. This means that GOLA tests can only be scheduled using Walled Garden. Tests can no longer be scheduled using CatGlobal.com.  See below for full support materials to assist you in using the new scheduling system:

GOLA Test Scheduling demonstrations (best viewed with sound):

• Booking a GOLA test using the Walled Garden Shopping Basket
• Accessing GOLA related reports in the Walled Garden

GOLA Test Scheduling support documentation:

• Quick guide and troubleshooting (PDF 55KB)
• Detailed centre guide  (PDF 1.7MB)
• FAQs (PDF 1.7MB)
  

Important: Due to changes in the booking process we do ask you to check the status of your bookings after they have been submitted in Walled Garden. Please visit the 'Orders' reports section of your Walled Garden account and check the test bookings have been successfully processed as 'Booking Accepted' or 'Booking Complete'.

Key booking principles:

• Book the test against the correct GOLA (Promissor Center) Account ID, this is a unique ref eg ABC123.
• If you are submitting multiple bookings for the same candidate on the same day spread the times of your bookings. Make sure you give plenty of time between the start time of each test eg 1 ½ hours for a 60 minute test.
• Check your booking status of your order by using the Walled Garden Orders reports.

Troubleshooting guidance

Currently we have seen a number of bookings rejected with the following reasons that can be avoided by following the following guidance:

'Candidate already scheduled for another test at this date and time - 702'
This error occurs where you have not spaced test bookings for same candidate taking into consideration the test durations. If sufficient time is given between tests for each candidate this error will not occur. Remember GOLA tests can be sat at least 4 hours before and 4 hours after the scheduled time (UKT tests 24hrs before, 96hrs after). Therefore a test can always be delivered earlier than scheduled if the candidate finishes their previous test early. GOLA test durations can be located by clicking on the tests available links on http://www.cityandguilds.com/5361.html.

Booking timescales
We are advising customers to schedule well in advance of the test time. The change to the process allows users to book tests via Walled Garden immediately after candidate registration. However, we do require more time to process a booking from Walled Garden to CATGlobal and into ESM. This can take one hour to process your booking into CATGlobal. Please be aware of this as you place your bookings.

GOLA Account IDs
Finally I would like to stress that it is important to know your GOLA Account ID (also referred to as a Promissor Center ID) eg ABC123. Knowing this ensures you book the test to the correct ESM installation. To identify which GOLA Account ID you use log-on to your CATGlobal account and select 'Test Center info', it is displayed under the Center ID field. If during booking via the Walled Garden Shopping Basket screens you cannot select or view the correct GOLA Account ID then please report this to City & Customer Relations Team who will correct this for you.

All GOLA scheduling queries should be directed to City & Guilds Customer Relations team on Tel: +44 (0) 844 5430000 - option 2 GOLA query.