ASD and STEMG hereby state that they do not endorse any trainer that organizations and companies claim to be ASD-STE100 compliant. No certification or approval have been given to these organizations and companies, to their trainers and to their training packages.

Training in STE

ASD Simplified Technical English Specification ASD-STE100 (STE) is a requirement when writing technical publications within the global aerospace and defense industry today.

It is called for by these specifications:

· ATA i2200 - Information Standards for Aviation Maintenance

· ATA 104 - Guidelines for Aircraft Maintenance Training

· S1000D - International Specification for Technical Publications Utilizing a Common Source Data Base.

Why training is necessary

Writing in STE is not necessarily easy. Without training, authors tend to focus simply on the STE Dictionary and not on the Writing Rules, which are equally important.

Simply giving authors a copy of the Specification is probably the best way to discourage them from learning about STE, and applying it correctly.

It is important for authors to fully understand the STE rules, and to think about what they are writing. Therefore, STE training is the first essential step for a technical author to be able to apply STE correctly.

STE training courses

Before you plan or arrange a STE course, think of the following:

Where will the course be held, at your place of work, or the instructor’s?

If there are several interested trainees, it will probably be more cost-effective if the STE instructor travels to the trainees' place of work. If there are only one or two interested trainees, it may be better for them to attend a scheduled STE course at the instructor’s place of work.

How many trainees will attend the course?

The ideal number of trainees on each course is between 6 and 12. Larger numbers will mean less time available to do the exercises during the latter part of the course.

What level of English language does the trainee have?

It is important that the trainee has a good command of the English language. Although a part of the STE course covers Basic English grammar, it will not help the trainee who has little or no knowledge of the English language.

What type of technical publications does the trainee produce?

The STE instructor should be able to customize the STE course to suit the type of publications that the trainee is involved with. This could mean that the trainee has to supply material for use during the course.

Does the trainee have some STE experience already?

If so, maybe a one-day STE refresher course is the answer. However, the STE writing rules and dictionary are under continuous development. Therefore, it is probably worthwhile for the trainee who has not been regularly writing in STE, or who has not had refresher training for a long time, to consider the full STE course.

A typical ASD-STE100 course

A typical ASD-STE100 course will include:

· An introduction to STE.

· Revision of basic English grammar – recognizing verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.

· Studying the STE writing rules and use of the STE dictionary

· Exercises to practice writing in STE , converting existing non- STE text to STE.

The length of a training course varies according to the instructor and the type of course. Usually, a full STE course is about 3 days.

Looking for an ASD-STEinstructor

The first person you should contact is your National STE Coordinator. Many of the national coordinators are instructors who can offer STE training courses. If they do not hold courses themselves, they will be able to recommend an instructor to you.

There is no recognized ASD accreditation for STE instructors. This of course can lead to persons, with no real STE training or experience, claiming to be a STE instructors. To help you find the right STE instructor, ask the following questions:

Does your national coordinator know of the STE instructor?

Has the STE instructor experience in your industry?

Has he/she experience with writing in STE?

Who was the instructor trained by?

Ideally, he/she should have been trained by a current or previous member of the ASD STEMG.

How long has the instructor been involved with STE ?

Does he/she have references from aerospace or specific industry companies?

Does the instructor use standard text for the STE exercises, or is the instructor willing to use some of the text that the trainee has produced?

If the answers to all the above questions are positive, then the instructor is adaptable and can customize the course to suit the trainee(s).

Training materials

Trainees will need a copy of the ASD-STE100 Specification.

This may be supplied by the instructor, or by the trainees themselves. In both cases, make sure that the Specification is at the latest issue. If the Specification is supplied by the Instructor, you must be aware that he/she will not supply later issues. Consequently, we recommend that you buy at least one copy from the official distributors.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

Tools will not think in your place. Software is not a substitute for good training.

There are STE authoring/editing aids (checkers) available on the market today. However, these should only be seen as aids for those authors/editors with a good knowledge of STE100. None of these checkers will write STE text for you. Nor can they fully convert non-STE text to STE. Although STE checkers can be helpful with highlighting non- STE terms and incorrectly written STE text, they are not fool-proof.

Simplified Technical English, ASD-STE100, is a Copyright and a Trademark of ASD, Brussels, Belgium