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Subject:RE: City & Guilds Certificates From:Steve Riley <SRILEY -at- bct-systems -dot- co -dot- uk> To:"'TECHWR-L'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 21 Mar 2000 09:43:49 -0000
If you're a working technical author with experience on the job,
you should find City & Guilds fairly straightforward. A number
of distance learning organisations will prepare you for the exam,
but this is not a requirement. If you're lazy, like me, you can
arrange to just take an exam at a local provider. Typically, this
will be a local further education college. You'll find most of the
people sitting exams alongside you will be 16-20 year olds studying
vocational courses. Amusing if you're an oldie getting qual-ied up.
Until fairly recently the C&G was about the only recognised
Tech Author qualification. There's much more to choose from now,
perhaps the best known being the BA in Technical Communication from
Coventry University. The ISTC (www.istc.org.uk) has details of
most courses. Try the Education section for taught courses and Links
for Open Learning. The C&G is probably still the most relevant for
certification whilst still maintaining a career.
Hope this helps,
Steve Riley
> I'm a UK based technical author. I have no "relevant qualifications" in
the
> field as I have learnt everything I know by getting my hands dirty. I'd
like
> to get some sort of formal qualification and have been looking at the City
&
> Guilds Certificates in Technical Communication Techniques (5360-001) and
> Technical Authorship (5360-002). Do any listers out there have any
> experience of these courses or any open learning centres that offer them?
