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TecDoc-Net

TecDoc-Net, formerly known as the Leonardo da Vinci project, is a three-year-long networking project, which has five stages. The project started in November 2002, and is under the auspices of TCeurope and the European Union. The aims of the project are to describe the European job profiles for technical communications and to define the objectives for training and education in the field in Europe. At the same time, the project aims to make industry aware of the importance of technical documentation and to improve its quality.

The goal of the project is to create a cooperative network in Europe between the old and the new countries in the field. Finland, along with Great Britain, Germany and France, is one of the old countries where documentation is an established field. The new countries, where technical communications and its study programmes are to be developed, are Spain, Italy, Poland and Hungary. The organisations taking part in the project cooperate with universities, private training institutes, chambers of commerce, service providers and large manufacturers of consumer goods. The objective of the project is to create a network for technical communications training and education in Europe as well as to help the new countries to establish their own national technical communications societies.

The Role of FTCS

The Finnish Technical Communications Society has been a part of the TecDoc-Net project since its beginning, and the project is good publicity for our society. Our representative in the project is Tarja Tolvanen.

Initially our role in the project was to collect and distribute information, but as the project progresses we will also learn about the activities and expertise of the other societies. FTCS’s responsibility in the project is to act as an advisor for Poland.

FTCS participates in the first, third and fifth stages of the project. The first stage, which included collecting information about the study programmes in technical communications in different countries, ended in March 2003. During the first stage our society’s responsibility was to collect information about technical communications training in Finland (vocational and further training etc.) and to translate all the information into English. It was also our task to collect information about professionals who could be used for teaching or forwarding information to educational establishments that want to set up similar study programmes.

In the third stage, the Finnish Technical Communications Society will support the founding of a technical communications society and participate in the setting up of a national kick-off meeting in Poland. Our role is also to give advice on collecting information and to answer any questions the Polish society may have. In the fifth and final stage, all information is gathered together and the preparation of the final report is started. The project ends in 2006.

More Information

News about the different stages of the project can be found on the TCeurope website: http://www.tceurope.org

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Last update: 20.09.2003