Technical Communication has evolved to be recognised as a industry, agreed experts and industry leaders at the Society for Technical Communication Annual conference. According to these experts, technical communication is a $100 million market today and growing to reach $800 million by 2012 and over a billion in the next five-six years. This growth is backed by a surge in outsourcing demand, improved human capital supplies and larger domestic customer bench.

Rakesh Shukla, managing director, The Writers Block, said, “The technical communication space is evolving into a fast growing industry owing to a rise up the value chain in terms of delivery for the domestic and global customer. It is also an enhanced ROI proposition for customers and further aided by superior technologies and tools. One is likely to see technical communication evolve into a diverse, technology intensive, consumer friendly-collaborative space.”

“Globally technical communication industry is about 15 per cent the size of the software industry, however in India the trend is fortified by the growing aerospace and defence sectors, the growth of the digital economy and the growing focus on product engineering,” he added.

Also speaking on the occasion, Ravindranath Parameswaran, executive director, TIE, Bengaluru reflected on the growth of the technical communication industry and how innovation and entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged to make the most of the opportunity available in India.

The technical communication industry has seen a surge in demands for outsourcing projects, which has gone up, especially after the US economic meltdown. The number of companies banking large documentation and technical communication projects in India has increased significantly. This is backed by the rise in availability of trained and experienced technical communication talent and workforce. This confidence in this nascent industry is also strengthened by a large number of domestic companies spending at significant percentage of their budgets on technical communication and documentation needs.

Speakers at the conference pointed out that the multitude of career opportunities available, backed by international standard education and training facilities have converted technical communication into a growing and attractive career option for many.

The customers for technical communication and documentation services includes sectors like IT technology products, outsourcing, manufacturing, banking, financial and insurance, aerospace, defence, hi-tech manufacturing, ERP and CRM, pharmaceutical, education and business consulting.

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Like Sarma, many are reaping the benefits of outsourcing to India by many US management institutes and universities.

A year ago, India attracted around 10,000 essays for evaluation. That number has grown three-fold, to 30,000 essays. Typically, a professor in India gets paid around $20 per assessment and checks on an average 120 essays per month.

A US-based academic advisory firm, Edumetry, liaises with two US universities – Butler University College of Business and University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration to outsource the services to India. Butler University’s business programme requires two, 300-hour cooperative internships. During summer, students are required to complete a number of essays, each focusing on a different aspect of the internship. The essays are then compiled into a 150-250 page portfolio, which needs to be assessed.

“The concept is gaining popularity in India as it not only allows the professors to make some extra money but also helps them get indepth knowledge on a particular subject,” said Madan Padaki, Co-Founder and CEO, MeritTrac, a Bangalore-based testing firm. Accounting, engineering and medical institutes are also looking at similar arrangement. Experts say outsourcing of such assignments to India is part of technical communication, which is a $100-million market today and is expected to reach $800 million by 2012, and over a billion in five-six years. This growth is backed by a surge in outsourcing demand, improved human capital and larger domestic customer bench.

Technical communication covers a wide range of products and services, which include user manuals, instruction guides, product overviews, illustrations/3D drawings, white papers, case studies, brochures, fliers, websites, press releases, proposals, research reports, newsletters, policy manuals and process manuals. The customers for these services come from sectors like IT, outsourcing, manufacturing, banking, financial and insurance, aerospace, defence, hi-tech manufacturing, pharmaceutical, education and business consulting.

“Technical communication space is growing fast and rising up the value chain in terms of delivery for the domestic and global customers. It is also an enhanced return on investment proposition, aided by superior technologies and tools,” said Rakesh Shukla, managing director, The Writers Block, a technical communication and publishing services provider.

TWB has been approached many times by universities abroad for a similar venture, but Shukla thinks the margins are too low in education compared to defence, aerospace and IT space, which fetch anywhere between $20 and $250 per hour against $10-25 per hour in education assignments.

Globally, technical communication is 15 per cent the size of software industry. In India, the trend is fortified by the growing aerospace and defence sectors, growth of the digital economy and growing focus on product engineering.

“Outsourcing such assignments to India is advantageous to US universities as they get valued in three-five days against 8-10 days in the US. Also, richness of grading is higher as it is done by a qualified professor. We make sure that the scale we develop is not ambiguous,” said a person who knows about the process.

Edumetry says leaving the mechanics of assessment to such professionals helps faculty members at the universities spend time on mission-critical activities like teaching, improving their courses and doing research.

Experts believe this business model will not only help the US, but Indian institutions as well by bringing a new assessment model into practice. And with foreign universities planning Indian foray, this would ensure ready market for international universities in terms of assessment mechanism.

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The field of Technical communication is immensely fascinating as it is about comprehending and then communicating highly technical concepts to people. It involves creating technical manuals, training material and user guides for a variety of products; from electronic hardware to financial products. Omnipresent, this form of written communication is more widely read than you might imagined.

It is a journey of writing which begins with capturing the – what’, or the technical intricacies, and then communicates the ‘how’s about the working of various products. Of course, some basic knowledge about the product one is writing about, is required. For example, if you have no idea about what certain medical terminologies mean, you will hardly be able to write the user guide for an X-ray machine.

Qualification

There is no specific academic background this field demands.

However, a graduate and post graduate certification programme in technical communication from one of the good training institutes, like the Bangalore-based The Writers Block or Technopoint, would certainly help.

Skill set

While any graduate with a flair for writing can be a technical writer, the profession is a lot harder than it looks. The job demands that the writer’s communication be concise and clear. The writers also need to have an understanding of the audience’s background and possible knowledge of the subject. That way they avoid the pitfalls of jargon-throwing or dumbing down explanations more than required. The other required skills would be:

* Impeccable spoken and written English skills

*Good interpersonal skills

*Knowledge of software tools like Framemaker, Robohelp, HTML, XML and some graphic tools like illustrator.

Stephen N, Technical Writer Lead for the Hyderabad based Techtotal Soft systems has an interesting point to share. He says, “The talent in showing ideas graphically and patience in problem solving help technical writers gain an edge over others.”

Technical writers can work for product manufacturing companies such as automobiles, aviation, telecommunication and many others. They can get started as associate technical writers and, with substantial experience, can move up the professional ladder as team leaders and then documentation managers or product analysts.

So the career path is quite promising with a starting salary of around three lakh per annum, which could go beyond ten lakh per annum, depending on one’s performance.
“To be strongly established in the field of technical communication, it is vital to get some basics in place,” says Dr Annapoorna Ravichander, Director-training of The Writer’s Block (TWB), a Bangalore-based training firm for technical writing. She has found that “a keen insight into the technical aspects helps the writer capture the essence of technology”.
Writing skills plays a vital role in this kind of communication, Annapoorna adds. So grammatically correct English and specific style guides like Chicago Manual of style, or Microsoft’s Manual are important. Presenting the document, creatively, with illustrations will add value to your work.

White paper presentation

There is another interesting facet of technical communication – case studies and white papers. Both these are reports about the problems and crises faced by companies and how they were overcome.

If the technical writers want to stand apart from the rest, what are the strategies to develop their Unique Selling Point? Gururaj BS, the owner of Technical Writers of India (TWIN), a portal for technical writers, stresses the need for research and an insight into the reader’s mind. “The ability to put technical concepts in perspective gives an edge to writers,” he says. If you’re creative, all the better. “An enquiring mind and out-of-the-box thinking contributes to the creativity fact and helps in crafting the technical communication,” says Annapoorna.

Expressing your ideas creatively has another interesting side-effect. Anita Sadashiv, the Director of Bangalore-based TechnoPoint India, says that the field has helped writers develop other latent skills too, like editing, graphics and conducting training sessions.
The investment is small and risk negligible, especially if you want to start out as a freelancer. Definitely a career worth exploring.

Training institute in Bangalore

Technical Writing Training
Address:
#421, Carlton Towers,
1 Airport road,
Bangalore
Telephone: 080 65681986
www.twb.edu.in
Email: info@twb.in

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TWB Post Graduate Program: TWB Post Graduate Program in Technical Communication is TWBs flagship & the most comprehensive program that spans a full year. Placement offer letters are provided on admission to the course with a minimum salary of Rs.3.8 lakhs p.a and placements are available with over 300 companies

TWB Certification programs: TWB Fundamental and TWB Associate Certifications constitute the programs that allow a student to acquire sophisticated skills over a 100hrs to 160 hrs training & get employed with one of the leading Indian companies and MNCs that hire from TWB. These programs are targeted at meeting the specialized employment requirements of India’s leading technology services companies in the IT, ITES, KPO and other related industries. The renewed TWB certification portfolio includes:

TWB Fundamental Certification Programs (FCP) in

• Technical Writing
• Technical Editing
• Business Communication
• Business Research and Analytics
• Patent Writing
• Program Management
• Instructional Design

TWB Associate Certification Programs (ACP) in

• Technical Writing

TWB Fundamental Certification Program Plus (FCP+)

• Technical Writing

TWB Essential Employability skills training includes Effective Professional Communications trainings, Essential Business Communication & Essential English training. These trainings span 30 days and enhance communication & other job related skills making graduates & undergraduates job-ready in the ITES and other services sectors

All TWB students benefit from The TWB Value Chain at all stages

Assessments: Various assessment tools evaluate candidates and suggests the best education training options to them

Training: India’s largest & most comprehensive portfolio with the most depth and most breadth

Placements: TWB OnCampus – the TWB owned online job portal – specifically concentrates on placements for individuals specific to the courses and provides the best possible employment

Alumni support: TWB Alumni facility helps individuals stay abreast of the industry requirements and networks

Continuous mentorship: TWB Mentorship enables graduates to get support in terms of domain knowledge and related…

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TWB Post Graduate Program: TWB Post Graduate Program in Technical Communication is TWBs flagship & the most comprehensive program that spans a full year. Placement offer letters are provided on admission to the course with a minimum salary of Rs.3.8 lakhs p.a and placements are available with over 300 companies

TWB Certification programs: TWB Fundamental and TWB Associate Certifications constitute the programs that allow a student to acquire sophisticated skills over a 100hrs to 160 hrs training & get employed with one of the leading Indian companies and MNCs that hire from TWB. These programs are targeted at meeting the specialized employment requirements of India’s leading technology services companies in the IT, ITES, KPO and other related industries. The renewed TWB certification portfolio includes:

TWB Fundamental Certification Programs (FCP) in

• Technical Writing
• Technical Editing
• Business Communication
• Business Research and Analytics
• Patent Writing
• Program Management
• Instructional Design

TWB Associate Certification Programs (ACP) in

• Technical Writing

TWB Fundamental Certification Program Plus (FCP+)

• Technical Writing

TWB Essential Employability skills training includes Effective Professional Communications trainings, Essential Business Communication & Essential English training. These trainings span 30 days and enhance communication & other job related skills making graduates & undergraduates job-ready in the ITES and other services sectors

All TWB students benefit from The TWB Value Chain at all stages

Assessments: Various assessment tools evaluate candidates and suggests the best education training options to them

Training: India’s largest & most comprehensive portfolio with the most depth and most breadth

Placements: TWB OnCampus – the TWB owned online job portal – specifically concentrates on placements for individuals specific to the courses and provides the best possible employment

Alumni support: TWB Alumni facility helps individuals stay abreast of the industry requirements and networks

Continuous mentorship: TWB Mentorship enables graduates to get support in terms of domain knowledge and related…

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The Writers Block (TWB), the leading provider of technical writing education and training services to aspiring technical communicators, has announced plans to take TWB Certification Programmes pan-India through TWB partners or franchisees. With immediate plans to expand aggressively via the franchise route, TWB seeks entrepreneurs and business owners, in India and Southeast Asia, who understand the unique drivers of education domain in India.

TWB, which offers short-term certification programme in technical communication, gives the partner three-year exclusive sale rights in the area. Meanwhile, the sale right is renewable without any signing fees. In addition, TWB is also responsible for evaluation, testing and certification, and placements for successful candidates.

According to estimates, there is an industry demand for over 1 lakh technical communication professionals in the country. They are required in various industries like software, IT, e-learning, instructional design, telecom, aerospace, defence, automobiles, publishing and digital media.

Over 50 per cent of trained technical communicators and technical writers in the industry are from TWB. More than 300 companies from various sectors hire TWB graduates as part of their technical communication teams, according to a company press release.

At present, TWB has its presence in over 16 cities including Bangalore, Mysore, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Vizag and Vellore through TWB Partners Program or franchisees.

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The last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 have not spelt great news for the Indian employment scenario. According to a Naukri.com study, India witnessed a slowdown of 22.4 percent in new hiring in November 2008, as compared with a slowdown of 21.9 percent in October 2008. The slowdown in hiring has been largely attributed to corporate scaling back their recruitment plans due to the global financial crisis and the current economic conditions. The general pace and tone of hiring in 2009 for fresh graduates, educational campuses and junior positions has been subdued.

However in a time where there is a significant slowdown in mass hiring for mainstream talent including programmers in the IT sector and voice and non-voice practices in the BPO/KPO sectors, there have been pockets of growth amidst this employment gloom and specialised hiring is likely going to keep the same pace in 2009 as it did in 2007 and 2008.

On one hand, jobs have been cut in sectors that formed a fair chunk of the mass market – like IT, ITES, BPO and financial services. On the other hand there have been hiring initiatives that can be seen coming from specialised jobs in sunrise and traditional sectors both. Some of these include wealth management, clinical research, actuarial sciences, technical communication, LPO’s, law firms, patents filing, research and related jobs.

These jobs are not mass generic-skill jobs available to everyone but only to those qualified or trained for these positions. The single most driving factor driving the specialised careers category is the fact that the quantum of value addition per employee is far higher as compared to a less skilled graduate for the companies and most of these jobs are not part of short term vision but a long term business strategy, making them more coveted and valuable for job seekers.

Key Trends

It is expected that these niche and specialised jobs will continue to rise since most of these industries are built on the value of long term growth and not short term market response. For example, there is a latent demand in India for over 1,00,000 technical communicators but the current supply is perhaps at 15 percent of that. This demand will need to be fulfilled keeping long term view in mind and irrespective of economic phases. Similarly, historically India has had a short fall of patent examiners – 115 examiners for 35,000 patents filed in 2008. Therefore, this is a talent pool that will need to be filled continuously for few years to come, so that market demand can be met.

These jobs will continue to pay better than mass jobs and therefore will continue to be preferred choice of career professionals. For example, average salary for a graduate or an engineer is Rs 2.6 lakh per annum, according to an IDC survey whereas an average technical communicator earns Rs 4.00 lakh per annum, (STC data) or an average LPO professional makes about 4.25 lakhs per annum (industry estimates).

Career growth is better in specialised jobs, since there is a marked provision for career path and professional enhancement. For example, not every BPO agent makes it to managerial ranks but a usability expert is likely to move to the next level sooner. These niche jobs have lifelong growth and lead to key managerial positions.

Better career prospects
Being in one of these jobs is a function of appropriate training and adequate hands on experience – both of which can be acquired institutionally. There are training programs and specialist institutes that are meeting the demands of these segments.

Experts agree that the slump in the market also means the best time to hone your skill sets and make further additions to your professional profile. “It is the best time to upgrade your skills and education,” says Anita Vasudeva, Founder Consultant, SAITA Consulting.

A technical communication training organisation would provide appropriate training to equip a graduate to apply for the niche/specialised job. These range from a Post Graduate Diploma in Technical Communication to short term programs like Certification in Patent Writing, Certification in Analytics, and short term courses in technical writing, etc.

It is interesting to note that most specialised learning institutes have integrated corporate networks for placements and recruitment purposes. This strength is leveraged to reducing hiring time in most cases for companies and providing a career security to graduates. After all, it is being able to secure better jobs and move up in their career that drives professionals to pursue specialised courses.
There are some caveats as well to moving up one’s career chain. The most important is that one has to perform well during training and internship to be able to acquire a better corporate position. Most of these specialist institutes have far more stringent criteria and processes than their peer group at graduate level.

To Do list

Candidates need to keep in mind the following:

If you are a fresh graduate, is that enough to grow in a tough economic environment?
Do you need to enhance your profile by acquiring special skills?
If you are already employed, what are the prospects of your current job?
Is it a job that can be replaced by someone cheaper than you or would it need someone with a specific skill set and knowledge?
Make an informed relevant choice. What are the kind of courses that you suit you – in terms of time, money and enhancing your job prospects?
The market is evolving very fast, so are its need for skilled people. Go in for a choice that has scope to grow and give you a specialist skill set.
Lastly, stick to your choice, work hard at it and be in the top 10 percent of your batch. If you do that in your course, chances are you will be able to do that in your job and career as well.

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At eight o’clock in the evening, Vibha Iyer, 23, an M.Sc in Physics, settles down in front of her home computer station to give online lessons in science to students in far off countries like the US and UK. Vibha is an e-tutor and she relishes the flexibility and money this job offers her.

E-tutoring is being touted as the next big thing in the domain of learning. With white boards and computers gradually becoming prominent in classrooms all across the world, virtual tutors are gaining currency too.

The flexibility of being able to sit at one place and tutor individuals across the globe is luring people even as the initial distrust of online learning erodes.

Says Lakshmi Ramanujan, online facilitator, The Writers Block (TWB), Bangalore, “E-tutoring is the future of education. We should gear up to it.” And we sure are.

India is fast emerging as a global online tutoring hub for quality teaching at affordable rates. This demand for online tutoring from India is driven by its large talent pool of teachers that are available at lower costs.

Says Chandan Agarwal, director, Learninghour.com of Educomp Solutions, “Over the last few years, online tutoring from India for students across the world has taken on the contours of an industry with tremendous growth potential.”

He states that in the US market alone, revenues for Indian tutoring companies are estimated to be at $20 million today, and industry players expect it to reach $2 billion in three to five years.

India is fast emerging as a global online tutoring hub

To become an e-tutor, all you need is a good command over the subject you desire to teach. The responsibility of familiarising the tutor with technology part is taken care of by the website that they decide to work for.

“Your selection is based on your technical competency, teaching aptitude and computer literacy. After the selection, you go through a comprehensive training on online tutoring including technology, pedagogy and communication skills,” says Agarwal.

An e-tutor’s job is similar to that of a general tutor’s except that the lessons are technology enabled. You will be required to provide live online teaching lessons, homework help, focused exam preparation, and even consulting.

Assessment of the students, understanding their weaknesses and strengths and providing academic support to improve their performance, are the e-tutor’s main concern.

Online tutoring websites have found a thriving market in India and the target clients are not only school students but highly qualified professionals as well.

There are several websites which cater to the high-end education needs of R&D professionals, lawyers, MNCs and even entrepreneurs. This means that the e-tutors are not just limited to graduates or postgraduates, but many also hold degrees from IITs and IIMs.

One can get anywhere around Rs 16,000 per month to even Rs 2,500 per hour depending on what you are teaching and to whom. Says Neeraj Gupta, CEO, Formulate IP, an intellectual property consulting firm which also provides e-learning to lawyers, managers and R&D professionals, “The billing hours depend on the course. On an average, we charge Rs 2,500 and even more per hour for a 50 hour course.”

But the biggest satisfaction comes from the ability to teach and get desired results. Says Abhishek Tiwari, an e-tutor with learninghour. com, “The best part is when students show a good result and a positive response.”

Growth opportunities include rapid promotions. You can become an information architect, corporate trainer, instructional designer and so on.

With a promise of flexibility, satisfactory pay packages, and less work hours, e-tutoring is a career that promises you a chance to make a career, just by sitting at home.

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Professionals looking to get back into workforce after a break are seen as ideal for jobs that offer more flexibility

When Rakesh Shukla started his technical writing outsourcing firm called The Writers Block (TWB), he decided to go after a somewhat unexpected source of labour to staff his company: the unemployed.
To be more specific, he looked for women who had taken some time off to raise a child, but were looking to get back into the workforce. “A lot of times they have had some kind of experience and been relatively successful,” he says. “They have quality, but have taken a break and want to do something different.”

Loving it: Prema Radhakrishnan, a technical writer at The Writers Block, says flexi-timings were what attracted her to her job, but it’s the challenges that keep her there.

As the demand for good people far outstrips their supply, and companies of all sizes struggle to find enough skilled employees, companies are turning to alternative tracks to meet the need.

“I think it’s an idea whose time is about to come,” says Ajay Sood, director of job training company KPO Academy, which seeks out women at home to teach its classes. Since the courses are set in advance—four hours every Monday afternoon for 10 weeks, for example—and don’t require a full-time commitment, Sood says, the job profile is ideal for women who have some outsourcing industry experience, but need more time at home.  “There’s always a shortage of talent,” he says. “At any given time, you have a pool of women professionals who have taken a break for family reasons. Somebody can put two and two together and make a business solution out of it,” Sood adds.

Especially for smaller companies, and positions that can promise more flexibility and stability, women at home are seen as ideal candidates. TWB, for example, which also offers courses in technical writing, runs newspaper ads and online contests specifically targeting the stay-at-home demographic. More than half of the people the company trains are women getting back into the workforce, according to Shukla. Around half of the company’s own staff, who are often pulled from its courses, also fall into that group.

While companies have traditionally taken back their own employees after maternity leave, switching companies or even industries might have a few side benefits. Instead of returning at a level five years below their peers, they can sidestep that ladder entirely, adds Shukla.

Recruiting women may be a deliberate move on the part of the companies to tap into new labour pools, but the women themselves often follow a more inadvertent path into a second stint.  Lakshmi Ramanujam, for example, first signed up for a TWB course offered across the street from her Bangalore home on a whim. “I decided to do the course just to see if I could do it,” she says. After finishing the course though, the company offered her a job.

“When I got the offer, I thought it was suitable,” she says. “It takes hardly three minutes to reach home.”

Larger companies, too, have started pursuing women who are looking to get back into the workforce. In March, the Tata group launched a “second internship” programme for women, and earlier this month PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd started posting job openings specifically targeting women.

Many of the companies are tinkering with things such as flexi-timings and work location to keep women on board. Pepsi is trying to figure out what work can be done off-site or part-time, and retooling certain roles and policies to fit that description, according to Nupur Bhargava, Pepsi’s vice-president of staffing.  Software firm Stratify Software India Ltd, part of the US-based Iron Mountain group, followed through on its work-from-home capability and even let one woman work from her home in Australia. “They may not be available 24 hours,” says Parveen Mittal, who heads the India operations in Stratify, “but they are a tremendous asset.”

The ability to step out for a parent-teacher meeting or bring their children to work, say female employees at Stratify, are part of a work culture that keeps them with the company.

But while mothers might first look for flexibility in their second stint, the work itself might keep them there. “I started off with notions of flexible timings, but I’m now enjoying the challenges,” says Prema Radhakrishnan, a technical writer at The Writers Block. Even if “leaving by five or six in the evening is totally out of the question”.

Tips for going back to work

• Stay in touch with former colleagues
• Stay abreast of news and developments in your field
• Take a short-term course to brush up your domain knowledge. It will also beef up your resume
• Start out with a part-time assignment to make the transition easier
• Find alternative childcare options, and get your child adjusted to them before beginning work

-Surma Vallish and Sagarika Mitra, training managers,Stratify Software India Ltd

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