Certification: History and Pros/Cons

Certification: History and Pros/Cons

Presented by: Nad Rosenberg

©TechWRITE, Inc. 2008 www.techw.com Slide 2

About Nad Senior Member of STC (member since early 1980s).Past President of Philadelphia Metro chapter.President and founder (in 1985) of TechWRITE, Inc., a technical communications company located in Woodbury, New Jersey.

[email protected]

856-848-6593


STC Certification Efforts



1981 – First formal study.

1982 - Wide support for certification. Plan developed. A Request for Quotation (RFQ) produced one bid from Educational Testing Service but not pursued for financial reasons.

1996 - The Board approved an RFP for feasibility study. Results were almost evenly divided.

1997 – The effort was revived. The problems involved in constructing a survey that would measure the TC skill set proved daunting, and the Society’s Board canceled the project in 1999.



2006 – Board empowers the Certification Task Force to study the issue and make a recommendation.The purpose is to collect information for the Board to make a decision (although the CTF may make its own recommendation).

2008 - Board empowers the Body of Knowledge Task Force to begin work on this fundamental task.


Certification: Pros and Cons


Certification: Cons

Technical communicators’ job tasks are too broad.

Technical communicators, information architects, documentation specialists, instructional designers, content developers, etc.

How do you handle the issue of levels of certifications?

Should everyone have to take the same test? Should people with 20 years of experience have to take a test?

How do you define the Body of Knowledge?This can take years.


Certification: Cons

The certification initiative is too large and too expensive for STC to implement.

Certification is only a piece of paper that says you passed a test.

“Anyone can do that.”

Employers may not recognize the value.


Certification: ProsCertification is the overwhelming trend with other professions

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)Project Management Institute (PMI) Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)Software companiesUniversitiesProfessional technical communications organizations in Germany, Switzerland and SwedenCommercial ventures throughout the world (in India alone, approximately 20 private companies offer certification programs).

QUESTION: Do we, as members of the STC want to leave it up to commercial ventures and other organizations to define the criteria for our profession?


Certification: ProsCertification will validate our professionalism

“People are performing technical communication tasks for good money without having the necessary training or education or skills to do that work. This weakens the work that qualified technicalcommunicators perform and brings into question the legitimacy ofthe profession.” Ken Rainey

The “Plumbers” Argument: Where there is no licensing mechanism, there is doubt about the quality of the work.

Certification will strengthen the profession by assuring that all certified professionals meet the same minimum standards.


Certification: Pros

Certification will benefit our employers.Employers, in this global economy, want assurance that the people or the companies they hire can do the job. If employers prefer certified employees, it is in our economic interest to implement certification.

Certification can potentially provide a financial advantage.

PMI salary survey – certified project managers earned approximately 13 to 17 percent more.Finding this out for certain for technical communicators poses achicken-and-egg scenario.


Certification: Other Key Questions

1. Will STC experience significant membership loss depending on the resolution of this issue?

2. Will there be an ROI for STC if a certification program is implemented?

3. Will there be a financial advantage for certified technical communicators?


Certification: Late Breaking News

Voice of the Market workshop in October

Senior executives invited from various companies to discuss value of TC.Intention is develop a single value statement of why employers should hire us.Result of the STC-commission study by Rick O’Sullivan entitled “What Makes a Profession Professional.”No direct impact on CTF.

Possibility of engaging a consultantCTF “quick and dirty” BoK CTF surveyTimeline


Certification: Contact InfoSteve Jong – CTF Leader

[email protected]@comcast.net

Hillary Hart – BoK [email protected]

Yahoo web site -http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/STC_CTF/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/STC_CTF/