atw: Re: Accreditation vs certification of certain skills
- From: "HALL Bill" <Bill.HALL@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 12:21:39 +1000
Training and skill sets are important to employers (other than HR
offices), but personally I don't think the possession of a piece of
paper means a lot without the ability to demonstrate what you actually
know.
=46rom conversations I have had at conferences with documentation managers
in our various divisions and with our peers in other large defence
industry organisations who have been trying (largely unsuccessfully) to
hire properly qualified authors, it is clear we are entering a period
when it is going to prove difficult to recruit suitably qualified
technical writers. The people I have been talking with have open
positions now they have been unable to fill, and given that Defence is
soon to launch a number of multi billion dollar acquisition projects
(e.g., Air Warfare Destroyers, Joint Strike Fighters, etc.) it seems the
situation will only get worse.
Unlike the IT industry, where almost anything seems to go, to succeed in
the Defence world, not only do writers need to be able to write, but
they need to understand and apply relevant defence standards, understand
logistic support disciplines and systems engineering, structured
authoring environments and "common source databases" or content
management systems that are increasingly being implemented to help deal
with the complexities of validating and reusing existing content. Unlike
the IT world, defence TW jobs tend to be fairly stable. I have been with
Tenix for more than 14 years.
Rather than accreditation schemes, I think what is needed is for some of
the universities and tech schools to develop certificate courses that
target specific disciplinary areas that writers need to get into these
kinds of employment, where - hopefully - the courses can be conducted by
existing practitioners from the industries concerned.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Head Office, Engineering
Tenix Defence
Nelson House Annex, Nelson Place
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Australia
Tel: +61 3 9244 4820 (Direct)
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Mailto:bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx
| -----Original Message-----
| From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Janet Taylor
| Sent: Monday, 23 August 2004 7:41 AM
| To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Subject: atw: Re: Accreditation
|=20
|=20
| The Swinburne study is not restricted to Victoria.
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Jill Nicholson [mailto:jpnicho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
| Sent: Saturday, 21 August 2004 11:44 AM
| To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Subject: atw: Re: Accreditation
|=20
|=20
| Anyone who knows me knows I feel very strongly about the=20
| difficulties of
| accreditation.
| If a 'group' take on accreditation and you can only get accredited by
| belonging to that group - looks like a money making venture to me.
| There are a lot of tech writers around who are as good, and=20
| better, than
| those active in groups - how do they become accredited?
| I think accreditation is assuaging us not the market place.
| Yes, I once belonged to a much larger group (not technical=20
| writers) who went
| through all this and it landed in the too hard basket for many of the
| problems that are coming up with tech writers.
| If the 'gift' of accreditation is a judgement of competency -=20
| I don't want
| someone who is not what I would consider competent to be in a=20
| position to
| grant me accreditation. And believe me they will be.
| Is the Swinburne study restricted to Victoria?
| Jill Nicholson
| N&H Communications
| 2 Park Ave
| ROSEVILLE, NSW 2069
| 61+2+94174302
| jpnicho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| www.nhcommunications.com.au
|
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