Nad Rosenberg

1. Certification:
History and Pros/Cons
Presented by:
Nad Rosenberg

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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.
www.techw.com
twnad@techw.com
856-848-6593

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STC Certification Efforts

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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.

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STC Certification Efforts
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.

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Certification: Pros and Cons

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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.

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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.

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Certification: Pros
Certification 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 companies
Universities
Professional technical communications organizations in
Germany, Switzerland and Sweden
Commercial 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?

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Certification: Pros
Certification 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 technical
communicators perform and brings into question the legitimacy of
the 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.

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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 a
chicken-and-egg scenario.

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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?

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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 consultant
CTF “quick and dirty” BoK
CTF survey
Timeline

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Certification: Contact Info
Steve Jong – CTF Leader
STC_CTF@yahoogroups.com
SteveFJong@comcast.net
Hillary Hart – BoK Leader
hart@mail.utexas.edu
Yahoo web site -
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/STC_CTF/