I think you mean Shepherd Air and no the company does not pay for that study guide - I would be surprised if any airline would pay for Shepherd Air. Everyone uses it though. You can't take the written till you are done with the CTP course which SkyWest does pay for and costs a lot more than the Shepherd Air prep course. You can definitely study that anytime but you don't want to peak too early since the written is after the CTP Sim portion.