How the New "International Europe Advisory Board for Professional Development and Training" Started Its Work

The German Advisory Board for Education and Training is a very important institution for the profession of technical communicator in Germany. In order to create a similar working group on a European Level, the Executive Board of tekom Europe decided last year to found the tekom International Europe Advisory Board for Professional Development and Training.

For many years, I have been able to work successfully with the German Advisory Board for Education and Training. Together with all the committed volunteers, we have achieved a lot in Germany, such as developing the Competence Framework for Technical Communication. In order to create a similar working group on a European Level, the Executive Board of tekom Europe decided last year to found the "tekom International Europe Advisory Board for Professional Development and Training". 

WHO REPRESENTS THE TEKOM INTERNATIONAL EUROPE ADVISORY BOARD?

My first goal was to get good and committed representatives from as many countries as possible. I was glad to be able to win over some of my colleagues, with whom I have been working successfully for years in the EU project "TecCOMFrame". So Sissi Closs, CEO at C-Topic Consulting and Professor at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Germany (GTM), Birgitta Meex, Professor at KU Leuven in Belgium, and Yvonne Cleary, Lecturer at University of Limerick, Ireland (GTM) will now continue with the work the TecCOMFrame Project has already started.

The Scandinavian countries are represented by Suvi Isohell who is a Lecturer at the University of Vaasa, Finland (GTM). Constance Richter, who is a Professor at Aalen University of Applied Sciences in Germany, will contribute with her experience and existing network. In addition, industry representatives such as Andras Juhasz, a technical communicator at AImotive Ltd in Hungary, and Marie Girard from France, working as Content Strategist at IBM and Lecturer at Paris Diderot University, (GTM) are board members also. In order to promote networking between technical communication and technical translation, Mirko Silvestrini, President of Unilingue and EUATC VP, and Ottavio Ricci (board member of TYCHE) from Italy, are committed to filling this role. It’s great to see that the work in the board is progressing well.

AIMS AND FURTHER PROJECTS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

We started our work at tcworld conference 2017 in Stuttgart and have been exchanging and working in online meetings regularly since then.

Represented both online and personally, we determined our strategic goals and activities. Many ideas have been found, such as to better connect industry and academia as well as technical communication and technical translation and other target groups. Above all, the profession of technical communicator should be promoted in order to increase awareness in different countries. 

Our first project is to systematically record the situation of technical communication in different countries. To do this, we first created country summaries.

During our next personal meeting at the European Academic Colloquium and College Teachers' Meeting, which will take place on April 26-27 in Limerick, an international survey will be designed. If you are interested in attending both events, you can sign up here.