The new Associate Certificate Program in Technical Writing is in town. It is offered by BCIT, created as a Part-Time program, and taught by experienced technical communicators. To find out more about the origins and aims of the program, Coast lines spoke to Thorsten Ewald, Program Head of Continuing Education at BCIT.
Coast lines: Tell us about the new certificate offered by BCIT.
Ewald: The Lower Mainland boasts a thriving high-tech sector and vies with Ontario as Canada’s premier market for technical writers. This is a great place to be a technical writer. Unfortunately, it’s not really a great place to get training to become a technical writer. Unlike in other provinces and most of the United States, the programs offered in the Lower Mainland tend to be short; none are for credit. BCIT set out to change that by offering an Associate Certificate Program in Technical Writing through Part-Time studies, that, at a minimum of 252 class hours, is more than 40 per cent longer than the nearest competing program. We like to think that it is, therefore, also more thorough and will improve our graduates’ chances of landing good jobs.
Coast lines: Can you explain the process that led to the creation of this certificate program?
Ewald: We started out by putting together an Industry Advisory Panel of some of the leading technical writing talent in the city—writers, consultants, and documentation managers. We asked them what skills they felt technical writers need to break into the field, and we designed our program around their advice.
One of the trends discussed at these meetings, for instance, was the rapid globalization of technical writing. In this environment, documents are increasingly being created in structured-writing environments, single-sourced and repurposed; increasingly, technical writers have to keep translatability in mind as they draft documents which are later localized for overseas markets. Our program prepares students for this trend.
Coast lines: SFU already offers a TW certificate program. VCC also has TW-related courses. How will this program change the local techcom scene?
Ewald: It’s true that a number of other post-secondary institutions offer courses or short programs in technical writing, and I’ve heard good things about them. But BCIT’s program has three distinct advantages. First of all, it provides the most thorough, up-to-date, hands-on training in Vancouver. Secondly, it is the only one offering actual course credits and actual post-secondary certification, as opposed to certificates of completion. Thirdly, we will expand this program to a Bachelor of Technology Program so that training in the Lower Mainland will rival that available in other provinces and throughout the United States for duration and completeness. Students entering our certificate program now will be able to continue to a Bachelor of Technology if they choose.
Coast lines: When does the program start, how much will it cost, and how did you select the instructors?
Ewald: We’re launching the program in January 2005, but will begin offering one of its courses, Writing for the Web, this September. Our cost per instruction hour will be lower than that of competing programs; we’re not in this for money. Yet our instructors are exceptional. We were overwhelmed with interest from very highly qualified people and chose our instructors for their expertise as well as for their teaching qualifications. Some have or are working on masters degrees in adult education. All will go through BCIT’s Instructional Training Seminars to ensure that their classroom delivery does justice to their technical expertise. It’s a great program.
