4-00 (December 2000) Education and Training by Hanna Risku Austria

at the Danube University Krems

The first postgraduate programme in Technical Communication was established in 1997 at the Danube University located in Krems, near Vienna. It is the only course of this kind in Austria. Since it is part-time with blocks of teaching, and only takes three terms to complete, it is especially suited for people who already work in relevant fields such as technical writing, illustrating, translating, usability engineering, software localization, information management, information design, web design or project management.

 

Course Design and Syllabus

The course aims to impart the skills necessary to produce technical documentation that is user-friendly, fit for the purpose, and conforms to current standards. The next program will begin in March 2001, starting with an overview of the relevant skills, occupations, information sources and associations. This will be followed by legal and psychological/pedagogic foundations of documentation, and by basic management know-how including project management, work organization, and the production and use of an editing manual. Since Technical Communicators can be both freelancers, employees and employers, participants learn how to set up their own enterprise or to run a documentation centre.

After acquiring a solid theoretical base the participants go on to implement various practical documentation projects which includes the following activities:

The participants compose, write and edit texts, visualize materials, optimize the layout and manage information.
• Discussion of the requirements of different media of publication and dissemination (e.g. CD, print, WWW).
• In-depth treatment of software documentation, which includes documenting the development process and the product(s), e.g. through manuals or online help menues.
• Examining web design, which has become an important activity for many Technical Communicators. The special skills and tools required are therefore included in the training.

 

Practical Relevance

As a result of recent austerity measures many traditional universities have cut down on guest lecturers, who in many cases provided the main link to the world of business. The Danube University, however, has always pursued a policy of combining theory and practice in its teaching and research. A variety of measures contribute to the practical relevance of the programme:

• Lecturers tend to be experienced practitioners in their relevant subject areas.
• Placements or internships allow participants to put their newly acquired skills into practice.
• Participants have to write a final paper - the master thesis - which allows them to specialize on a particular topic in the field of technical communication and documentation.

 

New Challenges Require New Skills

The professional profile of Technical Communicators has seen a profound change and is in constant flux. The job opportunities in Technical Communication are growing rapidly: Many businesses have founded their own communication divisions and many freelance technical writers have seen an increase in assignments. The tasks are manifold: e.g. restructuring the whole documentation system to meet the challenges of the modern multilingual multimedia communication landscape. But even "traditional" services, such as the writing of manuals, instruction leaflets or product descriptions, require new skills because of the advent of new technologies, and because new products and updates have to meet current standards and need to be delivered quickly and on time.

The Technical Communication program at Krems does not only aim to respond to these changes but to participate in and shape the developments in the fields of information and communication. Director of the Centre for Information Management and Technical Communication  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"