4-97 (December 1997) Education and Training by Ron Blicq Canada

Where Are They?

One hears of "Centres for Excellence" in various fields throughout the world (the Mayo Clinic for medical research in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, is a typical example), but how often does one hear of a Centre for Excellence in Technical Communication? Yet they exist, particularly at universities that have fine programs in Technical Communication (I can think of The Netherlands, for example, and Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York -- and there are others).

In a broader sense, there are also little pockets of special capability in technical communication throughout the world that we rarely hear about, because the people involved maintain a low profile and just get on with the job.

As an example, over the years I have watched technical communicators in my home city (Winnipeg, Canada; population about 640,000) quietly create an environment that is encouraging more and more manufacturers and product developers to use their services. Although there have been technical writers and editors in Winnipeg since the early 1950s, the major thrust started only six years ago, when the Society for Technical Communication and the Western Economic Diversification commissioned a study to determine the impact that technical communicators have on the quality of products and their documentation. (This resulted in the 1994 Report on Current and Desirable Standards for Technical Communication in Western Canada.)

The following year, Red River Community College in Winnipeg intuitively anticipated there would be a growing demand for technical writers and editors in the province, and so its Continuing Education Department inaugurated a certificate course in Technical Communication which is thriving today. At the same time, three technical communicators initiated an annual Technical Communication Institute (TCI), that every June brings top level specialists to the city to present four days of advanced courses on topics such as Project Management, Online Documentation, Usability Testing, Indexing, Designing Multimedia Projects, and so on. (Surprisingly, although the TCI was established to provide courses for local technical communicators, it now attracts people from all over North America and even as far away as Israel!) Are these, perhaps, the first steps toward creating a centre for excellence in technical communication?

I would like to hear about pockets of special capability in technical communication that exist in other cities and other countries. Probably the people involved also maintain a low profile, yet I think readers of TC Forum should be aware of what they are doing. Write to Hans Springer, our editor, or to me at rgi_ron@compuserve.com.  

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