English summary

This article looks at the current state of the technical communication profession in Finland through an internet survey conducted by the Finnish Society for Technical Communication (STVY r.y.) in the autumn of 2015. The survey results are discussed in conjunction with the literature of the field in order to form an understanding of the challenges and opportunities technical communication practitioners face in presentday Finland. It is widely acknowledged that globally, technical communication is a diversified and fragmented field — although reasonably established, it lacks many of the characteristics professions generally have. Such characteristics include standardization of the skills and competences required in the field. The Erasmus+-funded TecCOMFrame project undertaken by the professional society tekom is a current effort to formalize technical communication education across Europe. Uniform education is seen as a way to bring together this fragmented field and help guide it towards professionalization.