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Largest Peacetime Mobilization In Nation's History Successfully Accomplished By Transportation Security Administration In Partnership With NCS Pearson

Arlington, VA - November 18, 2002 - On the eve of the one year anniversary of the Air Transportation Security Act, the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, has successfully completed the largest peacetime mobilization in our nation's history. The Transportation Security Administration, created out of the aftermath of September 11, 2001, was tasked by the Congress to establish and deploy a qualified and fully trained federal security workforce in all of the nation's 429 commercial airports by November 19, 2002.

In March of this year, NCS Pearson was awarded the contract by TSA to help recruit, qualify and hire this entirely new federal workforce, now 45,000 strong. This world-class workforce will meet the highest standards of safety, security and professionalism as set out by Secretary Norman Y. Mineta.

"We are pleased to have helped TSA accomplish this Herculean task," said Mac Curtis, President, Government Solutions, NCS Pearson. "In the last few months, TSA has hired the best and brightest to help protect the safety and security of the American public. Secretary Mineta, and Admiral James Loy are to be commended for their hard work and efforts over these last few months to meet the Congressional deadline."

To help TSA achieve their goal, NCS Pearson was responsible for all the recruitment, assessment and selection of applicants from around the country to find the most qualified candidates to serve as federal passenger screeners at our nation's 429 airports. NCS Pearson also provided day-to-day servicing in human hesource support for the 45,000 federal screeners hired and deployed nationwide.

To assist TSA in meeting this critical its deadline, NCS Pearson:

• Received over 5.9 million inquiries through internet job postings
• Held more than 89 job fairs in 56 cities drawing over 84,000 people in attendance
• Processed over 1.4 million completed internet job applications
• Assessed over 430,000 prospective applicants in over 150 assessment centers from around the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam
• Qualified over 125,000 candidates who are now eligible to serve in the federal workforce
• Assisted TSA in hiring a world-class workforce of 45,000 federal passenger screeners
• Reached out to over 2,000 organizations nationwide to create a workforce more diverse than that of the U.S. civilian labor force.

About NCS Pearson

NCS Pearson is a global provider of applications, services and technologies for education, testing, assessment, government and complex data management. NCS Pearson's Government Solutions business is based in Arlington, Va. NCS Pearson operates as a business of Pearson Education, the world's largest integrated education company, which in turn is part of Pearson, the international media company. For more information, visit http://www.ncspearson.com.