The School of Modern Languages and Translation Studies
University of Tampere View of Tampere

The Technical Communications Programme

Introduction

The Department of Translation Studies launched a Technical Communications Programme in September 1997. As of August 2003 the programme has been organizationally placed directly under the School of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, and at the same time the programme was transformed from a one-year programme to a two-year programme.

Technical communication is a multidisciplinary field, including areas such as language and translation studies, psychology, graphic design and usability research. Technical communication refers to the process of creating, designing and transmitting technical information with a purpose to inform, instruct and describe scientific or industrial processes and mechanisms.

The programme familiarizes the students with the academic and professional characteristics and trends in technical communication, as well as with Finnish and English technical documentation, documentation processes, terminology work, usability, and document design for different media using appropriate tools.

The two-year programme leading to a Master's degree prepares the students for expert tasks in the field and post-graduate research. Tasks of a technical communicator include analyzing user groups, research and information retrieval, and designing, writing and updating various technical documents for different target groups.

The programme is carried out in close cooperation with companies: forms of cooperation include lecturing, traineeships, visits to companies and MA theses written to serve the needs of companies. One of the aims of the programme is to increase cooperation between the business sector and the university. This cooperation will benefit students, companies and the university alike. The programme provides an answer to the demand among Finnish companies for educated work force in the field of technical communication. One of the long-term aims is also to increase academic research in the field.

An important part of the programme is a three-month traineeship period, which takes place in the summer, when students gain first-hand experience of technical communication, and get to test the knowledge and skills they have learned. The companies, in turn, can satisfy their demand for technical communicators, in the long run, too.