atw: Accreditation and Industry Sectors
- From: "Birtley-Kent, Christine" <birtleykentc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 11:52:32 +1000
Perhaps I am wrong here, but I think we are confusing the story by drifting
into industry sectors rather than technical writing skills per se.
My understanding is that the 'industry' has always had to train it's own.
SAP and medical are other examples of industry sectors that run short of
people with the correct background knowledge - but we must be clear that
this is knowledge rather than skills. Some sectors require engineering
background knowledge, some require IT technical background knowledge etc
etc.
I think we would be getting into very difficult territory if we tried to
accredit for these.
And perhaps defence is so short because of the catch 22 we have talked
through on many previous occasions, the closed shop of 'you must have a
security clearance to get a defence job and you must have a defence job to
get a security clearance'.
ck
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrea Tappe [mailto:Andrea.Tappe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:43 AM
To: 'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: atw: Re: Accreditation
Hello Bill,
Unfortunately, Swinburne don't have that many interns available :-)
Dr Betts (who is running the Swinburne side of the project) and I have
discussed it as a future option (assuming that the TW community supports the
idea of accreditation, which is by no means certain). If the support were
there, it would certainly be worth running another project to look at what
employers think about accreditation and certification. It would also be
worth asking employers to contribute to a project to define the skillsets
required by a technical writer - I'm sure that Defence is not the only large
employer struggling to fill roles.
Thanks and regards
Andrea Tappe
-----Original Message-----
From: HALL Bill [mailto:Bill.HALL@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:31
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Accreditation
Sue (and others)
Your survey sounds like a good idea. However, if at all possible it
should extend to employers as well as writers. It would also be good to
explore the differences between accreditation (which I too, am suspious
of) and certification via specific targeted course work.
For example, where the defence industry market for technical writing is
concerned, there are some specific knowledge sets writers need - e.g.,
familiarity with Defence standards, logistics engineering principles,
etc. The industry has been used to hiring ex service personnel on
retirement from the Defence forces, but Defence has oursourced many of
the positions that used to provide on-the-job training to industry, and
as a consequence no one is currently providing the necessary training to
replace writers retiring from the industry. Without significant
additional training, even though they may be good writers, IT
techwriters lack major skill sets required for the defence industry
jobs.
My impression is that the defence industry is already having problems
finding qualified people, and without some targeted action I think the
situation is likely to get worse. For example, there is certain to be a
rising demand for defence technical writers over the next few years as
contracts are signed for several multibillion dollar projects currently
recently started or in the pipeline (e.g., AWACS fleet, jet tankers, air
warfare destroyers, fast attack transports, joint strike fighters,
etc.). A look at the DMO project website will give some idea:
http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/DMO/function.cfm?function_id=3D70.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Head Office, Engineering
Tenix Defence
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Phone: 03 9244 4820
Email:bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Honorary Research Fellow
Knowledge Management Lab
School of Information Management & Systems
Monash University
Caulfield East, Vic. 3145
URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/
=20
| -----Original Message-----
| From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Sue Woolley
| Sent: Tuesday, 24 August 2004 10:48 AM
| To: 'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
| Subject: atw: Accreditation
|=20
|=20
| Hello austechies,
|=20
| The study that the ASTC (Vic) are doing on accreditation is=20
| simply that, a=20
| study. A student from Swinburne is doing a 3 month internship=20
| with us to=20
| look at the issue. She will survey technical communicators in=20
| Australia to=20
| research some of the issues that are currently being=20
| discussed in this=20
| forum. For example:
|=20
| - Do we want accreditation?
| - Will it benefit us as professionals?
| - How will it work, who will administer it?
| and much more.
|=20
| If you are patient, you can all have your say shortly when=20
| the survey is=20
| released!
|=20
| Basically, we at the ASTC Vic wanted to know what people=20
| thought about the=20
| whole process after Allan Charlton's accreditation proposal=20
| was made public=20
| about three months ago. Swinburne University have been very=20
| supportive of=20
| the ASTC (Vic) ever since we collaborated on their post grad=20
| technical=20
| communication courses, so we approached them for advice as to=20
| how we could=20
| explore the issue in an organised, scientific fashion. We=20
| wanted to be able=20
| to quantify what people were thinking, so that we could=20
| proceed (or not!)=20
| in accordance with the wishes of our members.
|=20
| The Swinburne people then suggested we get other technical=20
| writing groups=20
| to participate, as they weren't confident that they could draw=20
| statistically valid conclusions from the relatively small=20
| sample that is=20
| the ASTC (Vic) membership. Andrea Tappe wrote to the=20
| appropriate people,=20
| and got their in-principle support (provided that we released=20
| the data to=20
| them, which was always our
| intention - there is no point in doing something like this=20
| unless the data=20
| is shared!).
|=20
| Once we have some data, we can decide what to do. It's=20
| entirely possible=20
| that the project will go no further because our members=20
| think it's a bad=20
| idea. We may put Allan's accreditation process into place for=20
| ASTC (Vic)=20
| members, or we may find another, better model. We may discuss=20
| our findings=20
| with other ASTC groups and TCANZ, and jointly develop and=20
| administer a=20
| scheme.
|=20
| ASTC (Vic) will not try to take over the whole process. We=20
| have not polled=20
| our members yet as we wanted to have the study and research=20
| methods in=20
| place. We are not trying to hide anything from members, it is=20
| simply that=20
| these sorts of issues take a long time to evolve.
|=20
| This study will build on all the work the Westies group have=20
| done. Again=20
| I'd like to thank them for their initiative and all their hard work.
|=20
| Regards,
|=20
| Sue Woolley
| President, ASTC (Vic)
|=20
|=20
|=20
|=20
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| To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to=20
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