Certificates

ITCQF⎹ Tools- and skill-specific courses

ITCQF

ITCQF, or International Technical Communication Qualifications Foundation (yes, just stick with the abbreviation), is an organization founded in Kraków, in 2014, by a group of tech comm speciaists. Their mission is to:

❝promote the value of technical communication…, help technical communicators to be more efficient…, and to continually advance our knowledge base by incorporating the best industry practices and the most innovative research…❞¹

Some of the names behind ITCQF include authors of Techwriter.pl and initiators of the first tech comm university program in Poland. With Polish techwriting scene blooming and writers’ salaries growing in recent years, ITCQF’s efforts seem to be paying off!

ITCQF offers an accredited course: Certificate for Technical Communication Professionals – Foundation Level. The two-day program prepares you to take a certified exam, which you schedule and pay for separately.

The material covered in the course is rudimentary, but it’s the milestone that will take you further down the techwriting path in an orderly manner. You will learn all the basics: documentation lifecycle, types of deliverables, phases of a documentation project, and more. For details, check the syllabus.

The true value of the course lies in the opportunity to meet people from the field; to ask questions, hear interesting anecdotes, and get real-life examples. This is the type of insight and level of familiarity a textbook won’t give you. You will also get an up-to-date overview of the current job market as seen by an actual professional who has, at one point or another, participated in recruitment of technical writers.

In Poland, there are currently two course providers that offer ITCQF training and assist you with the exam:

The exams are carried out by GASQ – Global Association for Software Quality. It is a reputable accredited center, so rest assured: the process will be trouble-free and light on paperwork. You may wait a while for your certificate, but other than that I can confidently recommend GASQ.

Keep an eye out for new courses from ITCQF. The organization is fairly young, as is the technical writing scene in Poland. The prospects for the field look good and the demand for specialists is rising, so new training programs might pop up anytime soon!

Tools- and skill-specific courses

Apart from ITCQF, there are other documentation-related courses, though they are usually more specific and designed for standard- or tool-specific purposes. Some examples include:

Take this list more as a note for future reference. For someone who is just entering the field, ITCQF alone should hit the spot. Once you land your first writing job and your career takes its course, you’ll know where to go next from there.

ITCQF Vision and Mission (Retrieved April 27, 2022) ↩

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