Submitted by Bill Thomas, STC Senior Member, Rocky Mountain Chapter
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Since I first joined STC in 1974, there have been discussions of whether Technical Communicators form a profession and whether certification would be a good idea. There have been roundtables, articles, recommendations, and hallway discussions in companies, chapter meetings, and presentations at STC conferences.

With the STC re-vitalization and transformation initiative, there has been renewed interest in certification and a new task force has been formed to look into answers. From STC President Paula Berger’s July Board Meeting Minutes, “I have asked Jonathan Baker and Dan Wise to lead a Certification Evaluation Task Force. The purpose is to investigate the issue of certification from all sides – value to employers and members, financial impact, feasibility of implementation, interest level – and report to the Society in May 2007 about their findings.” Jon Baker is a Program Manager within Technical Publications Operations within EMC Corporation and Dan Wise is an editor with the International Code Council.

Meeting weekly for the last month, Jon and Dan and a cadre of 18 STC members all across the country and in Canada have been meeting via conference call to determine the starting point and progress of this task. Once the questions have been hammered out and organized, the task force members will take these questions and attempt to get them answered in preparation for making a formal report to the STC board.

Questions typically asked have been along these lines:

• Is there a body of knowledge defining this profession?
• What would be the core competencies required?
• Would certification help or hurt the cause of the technical communicator in the field?
• How would employers react to certification?
• Would academia respond positively to a professional body of knowledge and teach standard courses to develop certified students?
• Would STC provide post-graduate, continuing education courses?
• Should certification be based on knowledge, experience or both?
• Would there be levels of certification (basic, advanced, master)?
• Will there be financial concerns on the part of STC, academia, employers, or practitioners that need to be addressed?
• Are there international or cultural considerations needing to be addressed?
• How would certification be marketed to sell the value of such a program and the profession to practitioners, employers, and academia?
• Would professional certification enhance the group or cause some to leave?

If you have comments or recommendations that this task force might consider, please send your information to STC_CTF@yahoogroups.com. If you would like to participate in the research the task force will be doing, contact Jon Baker, jbaker2525@earthlink.net, or DWise@iccsafe.org. We look forward to representing you and the profession to the Board in May 2007.