Defining the skills and competences of technical communicators on a European level

One major problem technical communicators in many European countries are still facing today, is the lack of recognition of their occupation. This is in part owed to the fact that there is no common international description of the profession and no definition of the necessary knowledge, skills and competences. Within international classifications and frameworks, such as NACE and ISCO, the profession of technical communication is incorporated in other occupations and not cited explicitly. Often job agencies, employers and job seekers are unfamiliar with the occupation and its requirements. National online job portals often use one classification system and one language. The lack of a common language and common understanding of the technical communicator’s profession makes it difficult to exchange data and information, particularly between different countries. Since 2013, the European Commission has been working on a Europe-wide <link https: ec.europa.eu esco>classification of skills, competences, qualifications and occupations, called ESCO. Dr. Michael Fritz, CEO of tekom, and Dr. Daniela Straub, who is responsible for training and certification at tekom, have been involved in this international project with regards to technical communication. ESCO is part of the Europe 2020 strategy to improve employability and mobility. ESCO provides a European multilingual database and classification of European skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant to the EU labor market as well as to education and training. ESCO aims to identify and categorize these in a standard way, using standard terminology in all EU languages. The classification system of ESCO will be linked to relevant international classifications and frameworks, such as NACE, ISCO and EQF, and the database will be available free of charge to all stakeholders through the ESCO portal. As active members of the reference group for the ICT sector, Daniela Straub and Michael Fritz had the opportunity to work together with experts from various European countries, including university teachers and company owners, to define occupations in the ICT sector such as the technical communicator and the technical documentation manager. Together they identified around 40 essential or optional knowledge items, skills, and descriptions. The work of the ICT sector reference group was successfully completed in late April. Through the work of the ESCO ICT Reference Group, the profession of the technical communicator is now described precisely in an international multilingual classification and the occupation’s requirements have been detailed. It will be available in all European countries and used by relevant stakeholders, such as national job agencies, job seekers, employers and training institutes. The ICT sector classification is expected to be published in spring 2016 on the ESCO portal.