By Liz Pohland | Director of Communications
As you may have heard, STC’s professional certification program reopened in 2015. The new program, Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC), is structured into three tiers—Foundation, Practitioner, and Expert. Foundation CPTC is now available, with Practitioner opening in 2017, and Expert soon after. The Foundation CPTC certifies knowledge of the technical communication profession through successful completion of an exam based on a body of knowledge. The body of knowledge STC has selected for the Foundation exam is Richard Johnson-Sheehan’s Technical Communication Today, Fifth Edition (ISBN-10: 0134419391), www.mypearsonstore.com/bookstore/technical-communication-today-special-edition-for-society-9780134419398?xid=PSED. Successful completion means taking a 50-question, multiple-choice, closed-book exam in 40 minutes at a 70% pass mark (or 35 out of 50 correct answers). The Practitioner and Expert levels will certify knowledge and application of best practices via evaluations of work samples by subject matter experts.
Aspiring CPTCs, once they have successfully passed the Foundation exam, must also pursue continuing education. Known as Continuing Education Units (or CEUs), all certified CPTCs are expected to remain current in technical communication to keep their credential.
Continuing education for CPTC certification is point based. To remain certified after passing the exam, Foundation CPTCs will need to achieve 12 points (Continuing Education Units or CEUs) over each two-year period from the date of their certification. Two years after certification, point accumulation will be required again to remain certified. If certificants fail to achieve 12 points every two years, the certification will be considered lapsed until CEUs are made current. If certificants fail to become current and required CEUs total 24 or more (4 years’ worth), their certification will be considered invalid and they must retake the Foundation exam. CPTCs may only retake the Foundation exam every 4 years.
Other than the fee applicants pay to take the exam, there is no annual maintenance fee for Foundation certification. Until a more formal process is established, all CEU information should be collected by the certificant and emailed to STC at certification@stc.org. Have questions about certification? Email me at liz.pohland@stc.org.
Continuing Education Points may be obtained the following ways:
