The STC’s progress toward developing a certification program for technical communicators has been a hotly debated topic recently, most notably on the STC Notebook Blog and the Techwr-L mailing list.
As there have been so many questions as to the history and the process, the STC Carolina Chapter is hosting Steven Jong, Chair of the STC Certification Committee, in a presentation and webinar on August 19, 2010 from 6:00pm - 8pm EDT.
For more details and to register for this webinar, visit the STC Carolina Aug 19, 2010 Invitation
Portfolio-based certification
At the 2010 Technical Communication Summit in Dallas, the decision to proceed with portfolio-based certification was announced to triumphant applause. Finally, after about 20-odd years of discussion, a decision had finally been reached.
The interest for STC to develop a technical communication certification program predates my involvement in the field. The six core competency areas suggested in the initial plan are a little removed from my own work experience. However, they sound like tasks performed by the typical technical writer.
At the very least, the topics are competency areas that line up with job description provided in the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- User analysis
- Document design
- Project management
- Authoring (content creation)
- Delivery
- Quality assurance
