What is Technical Communication (TC) and why is it important? For the safe and efficient use of products – whether devices, machines, software, entire production plants or service provider products – users require information. The manufacturers or providers of the products are obligated to make this information available across the entire product life cycle in a suitable media format. The creation of information that is usable, effective and reader-friendly has become a spezialized task within companies, and hence specially trained and qualified personnel called "technical communicators" are required. Quality technical documentation is also an important contribution to product safety. Technical understanding, language skills and digital competencies are only few of the competencies that are needed to perform those tasks. How can the labour market for TC in Europe be characterized? The number of HEI graduates is far below the demand of the labour market. Our studies reveal a constant demand for technical writers. In the industry sector technical writers account for 1.4% of all employees while in the software sector it is 3.6%. To fill the open job postings companies hire graduates from related study programs such as translation or engineering. Yet, these “career changers” often lack formal qualification in TC. In general, the majority of people working in TC are lateral entrants with background in engineering or translation. What is the status quo in the academic education of TC in Europe? Only some European universities offer programs in TC at all, while in most countries there are no HEI programs and thus the occupational profile is not explicitly represented. As a consequence, the required competencies and qualifications for technical communicators remain unclear for teachers as well as for employers. Further education and special training programs with appropriate curricula have yet to be developed at universities. For doing this HEI need guidance to understand what a curriculum should contain and how prospective students in that subject could be trained. What is the project aiming for? The project consortium aims to develop standard curricula based on a common academic qualification and competence framework – the TecCOMFrame, which stands for Technical Communication Competence Framework. The framework should further enable and support transparency, recognition, and transferability of the qualification and competences of technical communicators. As a result, curricula will be developed for EQF levels 5-7, constituting more higher education programs in TC across Europe, which again leads to more graduates who will be well prepared for the labour market. As an important side effect the recognition of the profession will be reinforced. What is the scope of the project and who will be involved? It is a European-wide project, involving eight project partners from universities across Europe. The project is led by Europe’s largest professional association for Technical Communication with a strong member base of more than 8.000 professionals. The project places high importance on the involvement of and collaboration with stakeholders from industry and service companies as well as from other European universities not acting as project partners. Knowledge transfer in terms of exchanging good-practices with respect to curriculum development, teaching, industry cooperation, and academic research is a central part of the project. What will be the major outputs of the project? The project will deliver the TecCOMFrame as an academic competence framework for the education and training in TC across Europe. It will also deliver four different prototype curricula reflecting the EQF levels 5-7: Specializations, Bachelor and Master. Apart from regular communication and articles on the project, a publication on the final TecCOMFrame will be created. The TecDocNet guideline, which goes back to an EU-funded Leonardo-da-Vinci project will be revised according to the findings during the project and published anew. Finally, a qualification and competence profiling tool following the example of the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) for the area of TC will be developed and published. Who are the target groups? European HEI, students, high-school graduates, employers, career changers, placement agencies What are the major (long-term) impacts? Increasing number of: • study programs in TC • graduates in TC • qualified professionals in TC Facilitation of: • understanding of the profession and its competence requirements • job mobility through definition of standards • student and staff exchange through availability of programs • employablility of students from related studies through spezialization in TC • employee recruitment due to clear assessment criteria for competences
Background For the safe and efficient use of technical products, users require information. The providers of the products are obligated by law to make this information available, e.g. for the purpose of product safety. The creation of information is a specialised task and requires specially qualified personnel called "technical communicators". Our studies reveal that the number of HEI graduates in technical communication (TC) is far below the demand of the labour market. In the industry sector, technical writers account for 1.4% of all employees, while in the software sector it is 3.6%. About 80% working in the field are career changers who often lack formal qualification. Only some European universities offer programmes in TC, while in most countries there are none, and thus the occupational profile is not explicitly represented. Thus, the required competencies for technical communicators remain unclear. Aim The aim is to have more higher education programmes in TC across Europe, producing more graduates who will be prepared for the labour market. In practice, the goal was to develop an academic competence framework that defines the qualification and competences of technical communicators and supports transparency, recognition and transferability of those competences. Out of the framework, standard curricula were to be derived, serving as an instrument to establish university programmes. Through the quality and comprehensiveness of the newly created qualification standard, we contribute to the recognition and promotion of the profession. Our target group is, first, European HEI, who can directly use the results. Then, students, high-school graduates and career changers will benefit from new university programmes or exchange opportunities for programmes abroad. Also, employers who seek qualified staff will then have a higher availability of graduates in the field. The framework serves as a reference as to what a technical writer should be able to do. Finally, we raise awareness about the profession and promote its relevance in today’s business world. Project Consortium To enhance experience and knowledge exchange, we chose project partners who either already have study programmes in TC or who don’t, but would like to establish one. For a broad geographical coverage, our partners come from: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania. The project is coordinated by Europe’s largest professional association for TC with a strong member base of nearly 9,000 professionals. Stakeholders from industry and academia are involved. Major Outputs 1. The academic competence framework (TecCOMFrame) provides a comprehensive overview of all competencies relevant for technical writers. It comprises 22 first-level subjects, which are allocated to 6 major competence dimensions: academic perspective, communication and culture, content, management, technology and media, and transversal competencies. Each dimension incorporates several subjects and sub-subjects and describes the associated learning goals and competencies that need to be taught for those sub-subjects. 2. The following six prototype curricula, based on the competence framework, serve as inspiration to develop a TC programme or specialisation within a programme or to improve existing ones: • Full Bachelor’s degree (for students who start studying at the higher education level). • Non-consecutive Bachelor’s (last part of a Bachelor’s degree, first part is not related to TC). • Consecutive Master’s degree (for students who have studied TC at Bachelor’s level). • Non-consecutive Master’s degree (for students from any disciplinary background who have not studied TC). • Subject stream in a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in another field (e.g. language studies or engineering). Each curriculum provides Bologna-relevant information, such as credit weighting, indicative syllabus and learning outcomes. 3. Inspired by the former EU-funded “TecDocNet guideline”, comprehensive information about the profession and its environment was updated and presented on our web platform, e.g. professional activities, personal attitudes, workplace. 4. A university map provides an overview of all TC studies in Europe. It can be searched according to country, degree and type of study. Dissemination To enhance the project recognition, to promote the profession and to establish network dissemination, activities were substantial, also involving silent partners. These included: events, articles, presentations, newsletters, social media. Impacts We managed to reach universities who are now using our outputs to establish study programmes. The network of HEI representatives has grown and a number of cooperation activities were established (e.g. exchange programmes). By establishing an Advisory Board within tekom Europe, we sustain the project outputs and can ensure that the work is carried on and further disseminated. www.teccom-frame.eu