Introducing Technical Communication into a Cooperative Study Program
Developing the Next Generation of Experts in a Critical Field – Insights from a Company
A summary of Kathrin Reinhard: Leading the user documentation team at Siemens Healthineers AG’s Advanced Therapy business area, Kathrin Reinhard has a background in languages, roots in software documentation, and is responsible for the user documentation of imaging and therapy systems in the clinical areas angiography, interventional radiology, and surgery developed and manufactured internationally and sold worldwide.
In medical technology, technical communication plays a key role in safe, understandable, and legally compliant product use. The quality of user information is essential for the full understanding and safe operation of medical hardware and software, in clinical settings and integrated into complex workflows. The cooperative study program in Communication and Media Management at Siemens Healthineers demonstrates how companies, universities, and students can jointly address this challenge. It combines academic training with practical experience in industrial medical technology, thereby highlighting a professional field that is often underestimated: technical writing as a highly specialized interface function between technology, language, regulation, clinical application, and international collaboration.
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Medical Technology as a Context for Technical Communication
Medical technology systems are developed in an environment shaped by innovation, regulation, international collaboration, and clinical responsibility. Siemens Healthineers develop and manufacture systems for diagnostic imaging, laboratory, and point-of-care diagnostics, cancer therapy, interventional procedures, and digital health solutions,. In the Advanced Therapies division, the focus is particularly on image-guided therapies: angiography systems, catheterization labs, hybrid operating rooms, mobile C-arms, and multimodal imaging solutions support procedures in interventional radiology, cardiology, and surgery.
These products are technically sophisticated, highly configurable, and embedded in a wide range of clinical use cases. They are developed, manufactured, delivered, maintained, and further developed on an international scale. For technical communication, this implies that user information must not only be correctly phrased but has to cover technical functions, clinical workflows, regulatory requirements, translation processes, document management, and address several target audiences. The target audience for user documentation is not patients, but clinical users: physicians, medical technical staff, medical physicists, service technicians, and other specialized roles in clinical operations. The user documentation shall enable these people to use complex systems safely, efficiently, and appropriately for the situation.
A Field Under Pressure to Change
The demands in technical communication are growing. Product portfolios are expanding, systems are becoming more powerful, release cycles are accelerating, and international development structures are growing more complex. At the same time, digital technologies, AI-powered applications, and data-driven services are transforming the way information is created, maintained, delivered, and used. Traditional manuals are now just one part of a larger information ecosystem.
Adding to this is a staffing challenge. In many companies, experienced professionals are retiring, as does their product, process, and experiential knowledge. Fewer young professionals are hired, and they are entering a demanding field that needs much more than authoring.
They need language skills, technical understanding, analytical thinking, process and regulatory awareness, team skills, and a drive for continuous change and learning. In medical technology in particular, technical writing is a niche field with a high degree of specialization. This specialization often remains invisible in day-to-day business operations. Documentation is easily misunderstood as a downstream writing task, even though it is actually a field of expertise that is deeply intertwined with development, quality assurance, localization, regulatory approval, service, and clinical application.
Why it’s not easy to simply “find” the next generation of talent
The job market mostly doesn’t provide ready-made specialists for such a specialized combination of language, technology, and a regulated product environment. That is why traditional recruitment alone is not enough. Companies must systematically develop the next generation of talent—as early as possible, in a practical manner, and with a clear understanding of which skills will be needed in the long term.
A cooperative study model offers a strategic approach to this. It provides students with a structured entry into a demanding professional field and enables companies to support future professionals over several years in terms of technical, methodological, and organizational skills. Students acquire academic foundations at university and apply this knowledge in real-world business contexts. This creates a two-way learning dynamic: academic concepts meet industrial practice, and practical experience feeds back into academic study and reflection.
This approach is particularly valuable because technical communication cannot be learned in theory only. Information architecture, text linguistics, media management, terminology, standards, and editorial processes can be taught at the university. But how these topics concretely impact a global medical technology company, only shows in real projects: through collaboration with development, quality, regulatory affairs, user experience, service, translation, product management, and clinical partners.
The cooperative study model as a learning framework
The cooperative study program in the B.A. Communication and Media Management track is embedded within a larger training structure. Siemens Healthineers bundles dual study programs in the fields of business, engineering, and computer science. Communication and Media Management, or Technical Communication, is assigned to the engineering field.
The model is based on three learning locations: the university, the central training organization, and the specialist department. Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences provides the academic foundations. These include language, text linguistics, media management, IT, information systems, technical documentation, design, project management, and other methodological fundamentals. The central Talent Education Organization provides the organizational framework, supports personal development, and offers additional training, coaching, networking, and administrative support. The specialist departments provide practical experience in real teams, with real products, and within real business processes.
This three-way division is crucial. The university remains responsible for academic education. The company does not interfere with the curriculum but supplements it with practical experience, career guidance, and a corporate context. Students navigate two independent systems: academic education and industrial practice which is the main catalyst for their professional development.
Course Content and Career Opportunities
The Communication and Media Management program has a broad disciplinary scope. It combines linguistic, media-related, technical, and organizational contents. In a corporate context, these fundamentals are applied to specific tasks in technical communication: editorial work on information about complex medical hardware and software, the creation and improvement of user manuals, translation management, SAP document management, and the implementation of standards, norms, and regulatory requirements.
Technical communication materials must be accurate, complete, legally compliant, accessible, and above all, understandable. In this context, understandability does not mean simplification at any cost, but rather precise, target-group-appropriate, and user-friendly information for clinical specialists and service technicians.
The career paths available for young Technical Communication professionals are correspondingly diverse. In addition to user documentation and service documentation, relevant fields also include user experience, regulatory affairs, quality management, or technical marketing. This indicates that technical communication is not an isolated niche domain but rather a professional interdisciplinary field with many opportunities for development.
Course Structure: Theory, Practice, and International Experience
The program lasts 3.5 years, or 42 months. It begins with a pre-internship and combines regular study phases at the university with practical phases in a company. In total, the program includes 70 weeks of full-time practical training. An eight-week internship abroad is scheduled for the third year of study; the fourth year combines the bachelor’s thesis, remaining university modules, and practical components.
This structure enables a step-by-step development of skills. The early practical phases focus on getting to know the organization, products, tools, processes, and roles. Later, students can work increasingly independently, take on smaller editorial tasks, contribute to projects, and combine their knowledge from the university and the company.
The international placement is more than just an additional component. In globally oriented companies, technical communication always involves international collaboration. Documentation processes, product development, translation, localization, and support are often spread across multiple countries. Anyone who wants to learn technical communication in such an environment must understand how collaboration works across locations, cultures, time zones, and organizational structures.
Hands-on experience at Advanced Therapies: Learning through complex products
Advanced Therapies is one of the business areas involved to provide insights into real-world business practices. . Its User Documentation Team consists of technical writers, documentation and translation management specialists, and UI localization experts. It is part of the Engineering Services division within the R&D organization and collaborates with external service providers as well as partner teams in China, India, and Spain.
Students gain insights into the entire product and solution development process: from the initial idea through development and market launch to further development, maintenance, and phase-out. They learn how decisions are made, how projects are organized, how teams collaborate, and how a complex landscape of tools and processes functions in practice.
An essential component is the clinical context. Technical communication in medical technology cannot be derived solely from system specifications. It requires an understanding of how products are actually used: in the operating room, in the catheterization lab, in interventional radiology, in cardiology, or in other clinical application settings. Clinical training, product training, job shadowing, and insights into application testing help students to build this perspective.
This approach fosters an understanding that user documentation does not merely describe system capabilities but rather how a system is used sensibly, safely, and in compliance with regulations in a specific work context. Mentoring and Gradual Professionalization
An effective dual model requires more than just tasks and assignments. It requires support and guidance, regular feedback, technical advice, tools training, editorial training, reflection sessions, and integration into the team. Students are neither temps nor observers, they are team members gradually taking on responsibilities.
Mentoring combining technical and methodological-strategic perspectives is particularly effective. The technical side imparts editorial skills, product knowledge, standards, tools, documentation processes, and medical device-specific nuances. The methodological side supports students with getting the bigger picture: business processes, roles within the company, collaboration with related disciplines, prioritization, stakeholder communication, and the importance of user information for market success. This fosters professional competence. Students learn not only to create texts but also to understand information management within the company: What information is needed? Who provides subject matter expertise? Who reviews content? Which regulatory requirements apply? How is content translated and versioned? How is information delivered to the customer? How is documentation changing due to new technologies?
Student Selection: Curiosity as a Key Competency
For a program like this, formal academic aptitude alone is not enough. The fit between the individual, the professional field, and the corporate environment is key. Basically, we are looking for technophiles with a forte in languages, or vice versa. They must be willing to familiarize themselves with complex products, ask questions, analyze contexts, and develop solutions.
Curiosity is a key competency. Technical communication in medical technology requires the ability to tackle unfamiliar systems, ask experts targeted questions, structure information, and prepare it for specific use cases. Those who simply “enjoy writing” will not thrive, but those who are able to combine language, technology, people, and processes bring an important foundation to this field. The hiring process has to cover both aspects: Does the applicant fit the company and the professional field? And does the company, with their requirements, structures, and development opportunities, align with the students’ expectations? This mutual fit is important because a dual degree program is a multi-year collaboration.
Benefits for Companies
This cooperative model has several advantages for companies. It enables sustainable talent development in a specialized field where fully trained professionals are hard to find. Over a few years, students acquire company knowledge, product know-how, and practical experience. At the same time, they add current academic perspectives, new methodological approaches, and fresh questions to the teams.
The model is also important for the visibility of technical communication within the company. As students move through projects, teams, and interfaces as future talent, it becomes clear that technical writing is a qualified professional field. It is no longer perceived as background support function, but as a distinct area of expertise that contributes to product quality, user acceptance, regulatory compliance, and customer value.
In the long term, this can lead to a cultural shift. Today’s young professionals will become the specialists, project managers, or decision-makers of tomorrow. If they experience technical communication as a strategic interface from the very beginning, they can carry this understanding forward into organizations.
Benefits for Students
For students, the dual model offers an exceptionally rich learning environment. They earn an academic degree, gain professional experience early on, receive financial support, and build a professional network. They see how course content translates into practice and can refine their career interests early on.
The greatest advantage lies in the connection between theory and real-world application. Terms such as information architecture, editorial process, target audience orientation, localization, standards compliance, or usability do not remain abstract. They become tangible when working with content management systems, coordinating with specialist departments, creating or revising documentation, participating in product training, or observing a system in clinical use.
International experience also strengthens personal and professional development. An assignment abroad is proof that technical communication does not end at national borders. Content, processes, and products are created within global networks. Those who gain this experience early on develop intercultural competence, self-confidence, and a better understanding of international collaboration.
Benefits for Universities and the Professional Field
Universities also benefit from such collaborations. They receive feedback on which skills are needed in industrial practice, which topics are gaining importance, and how job profiles are changing. At the same time, academic autonomy is preserved. The university does not train students for a single corporate routine but rather imparts fundamentals that can be applied in various contexts.
For the field of technical communication, this collaboration is particularly valuable. It strengthens the perception of a profession that is often reduced to language skills but actually encompasses much more: information design, technical analysis, regulation, digital tools, media management, translation, usability, quality, and project work. Students become mediators between the university and industry. They bring academic concepts into companies and bring practical experience back to the professional community.
Success Factors of a Dual Model
A dual study program does not work automatically. It requires clear responsibilities and reliable structures. The university must provide a stable academic framework. The company must enable genuine practical experience. The central training organization must coordinate, support, and ensure quality. The specialist departments must provide time, tasks, and mentoring.
Key success factors are:
- real-world tasks instead of mere observation,
- integration into teams and projects,
- transparent career development steps,
- designated contacts and regular feedback,
- international and interdisciplinary experience,
- clear coordination between the university and the company,
- respect for the different responsibilities of both partners
- not at least, willingness to take students seriously as future professionals.
This does not require a global company. Smaller companies in particular can benefit from this model. A dual degree program does not necessarily require a large, centralized training organization. What matters is that the practical phases are sensibly structured, that students receive professional guidance, and that there are genuine opportunities for learning and working. Smaller companies also can offer valuable insights, product-oriented experience, and professional exposure.
Technical Communication as a Future Skill
The development of medical technology indicates that technical communication will become even more important in the future. AI, digital twins, data-driven services, remotely supported applications, more interconnected systems, and personalized care are changing not only products but also information needs. Users need information that is up-to-date, context-specific, tailored to the target audience, compliant with regulations, and available in a format suitable for the delivery.
This also impacts the skill set required of technical writers. They must design information environments, not just write documents. They must understand systems, account for data flows, maintain modular content, manage translation and localization processes, comply with regulatory requirements, and collaborate with many specialized roles. In this environment, lifelong learning is not just a buzzword, but an integral part of the profession.
A dual degree program can foster this mindset early on. It shows students that technical communication is a dynamic field where language, technology, and responsibility converge, and it is proof to companies that nurturing the next generation doesn’t have to begin after graduation but much earlier in professional lives.
Conclusion: Cultivating the next generation for a strategic interface field
The dual study model in the field of communication and media management highlights just how demanding and future-oriented technical communication is in medical technology. It combines academic foundations with industrial practice, personal development with professional specialization, and local training with international collaboration.
For companies, the model is a way to sustainably build a pipeline of talent in a specialized field. For students, it offers a practical entry into a complex and meaningful professional field. For universities, it fosters a productive exchange with the realities of industry. And for technical communication as domain, it enhances the visibility of a profession that goes far beyond writing manuals.
Technical communication ensures that complex technologies can be understood, used safely, and applied effectively. In medical technology, this is not merely a matter of providing good information, but a contribution to quality, safety, and clinical performance. This is precisely why this professional field deserves a talent development program that does justice to its importance.