2-99 (June 1999) Education and Training by Reto Schilliger

for the Challenges to Come?

What are the Future Challenges?

When I started as a technical writer more than ten years ago, I wrote my first drafts with a pencil. Soon after, desktop publishing became part of my work, as did writing story boards for computer based training and managing online information projects. For several reasons the work of a technical communicator will change at an even higher rate in the future:

• The fast developments of the information age have already had some impact on our profession. While up to now not everybody has had to catch up with the fast-paced developments, this will soon be essential if they are to remain in the job market.
• Under the light of the increasing specialization of technical businesses and the growing weight of product liability issues, technical communicators will need a much more thorough understanding of the technical aspects and of the norms and regulations specific to their working field.
• Business changes have become the rule and they affect everybody. This means staying flexible through life-long learning.

 

A Basic Approach to Face the Challenges

Facing the challenges in technical communication may be possible only through a carefully optimized combination of education and training, two concepts that for the purpose of this model are defined as follows:

Education

Education stands for teaching rather broad knowledge and skills in a field of interest. It is typically offered by public schools, universities or other large organizations, and usually takes place in traditional settings. Although exceptions do exist, education usually requires the full-time presence of the student for a long time.

Training

Training stands for teaching very carefully selected knowledge and skills, over a shorter period. The objectives are based on specific tasks to be carried out at a workplace. Training is often delivered on-the-job or in modular courses that working people can attend in addition to their work. Being highly specific and therefore limited in content, training modules can be delivered in more modern ways, too, using media like CD-ROM and the Internet.

In the case of technical communication, education and training could be assigned the roles described below.

 

Education in Technical Communication

To Provide the Common Basics

Independent from the exact nature of their jobs and the technical field they work in, technical communicators worldwide must have a common set of basic knowledge and skills to draw on.

Parts of the basics are already taught by regular schools, as is the case for writing in general. These parts, which often take years to learn, form a necessary prerequisite before one can even think about becoming a technical communicator.

Factors that are important when educating technical communicators are the required common basics not taught by regular education, such as being able to:

• describe the mental process of handling information and to take it into account in the design of information,
• describe and to apply the basic requirements to make text legible and comprehensible,
• efficiently plan and manage writing and information projects,
• visualize complex information,
• produce sketches,
• describe and apply the rules of good layout, and many more.

The only thing missing is the coordination of the various efforts, to achieve common objectives and content.

 

Training in Technical Communication

To Provide the Individually Needed Specifics

Once a technical communicator has completed basic education, the missing specifics for his or her individual career plan, job or project, should be covered by highly focused training modules. This is the only way to meet the requirements of fast adaptation to business and job-market changes. It is also more cost-effective.

Such training should focus on what may be called key knowledge and skills, and not on any specific software or tool (except, of course, to perform some exercises). There are so many tools on the market today, that it would make no sense to concentrate on a specific one.

If tool-specific training is offered in combination with other training, this is fine. Otherwise, there are enough businesses already offering tool-specific training.

Consider an example:

For somebody needing to prepare for the production of an online-help, the additional training might cover four objectives: to be able to

• describe the different approaches of online-help systems,
• plan and manage any online-help project,
• explain the specific requirements concerning structure and writing style, and
• meet existing software standards.

 

A Daring Vision? A Globally Coordinated and Approved System

A prerequisite for the success of the described model is the quality and the transparency of all its parts to trainees, customers and businesses. And, as globalization more and more asks for mobility, passing any of the courses should not only be of value in a specific country but also find acceptance worldwide.

When it comes to basic education of technical communicators, courses are already offered by private organizations as well as by technical schools and even universities. The first step towards the described system would mean standardizing the objectives and outcome of these basic courses, to be able to establish the further trainings from a well-defined basis.

This is where professional organizations such as INTECOM and its member societies might come into play, working in close cooperation to outline the objectives and the content as well as any further educational requirements. Such an outline should of course leave room for national and cultural specifics. The result of the work might be a standardized basic professional diploma that could be acquired at educational institutions worldwide.

The concerted efforts of professional organizations might also be needed when it comes to outlining the training modules. For these items, too, standards should be established, ideally in close cooperation with potential employers. The standards could then be recommended to any organization offering such courses. If courses meet the standards they could be officially approved, and advanced professional diplomas might be awarded to successful students.

Finally, a higher international diploma in technical communication could be awarded to students having passed basic education and a combination of several training modules.

Establishing such a combination of standardized basic education and highly focused modular training will not be an easy task, especially when it is not limited to a single country. But thanks to the Internet and email, borders need no longer be considered an obstacle.

So, why not try?  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"