Earning certificate credit by self-study
Self-study provides a route to medical writing certificate credit without attending conference workshops, allowing learners to complete educational material remotely.
Remote study and assessment
AMWA self-study modules allow learners to earn Essential Skills certificate credit without attending in-person workshops. In 2009, the remote route required learners to return an evaluation examination for certificate credit.
By summer 2018, AMWA's Essential Skills workbooks were available digitally, making it possible to complete the Essential Skills certificate programme entirely online. The programme was designed to refine editing, writing, communication and bibliographic skills.
Workbooks and packages
The Essential Skills workbooks were written by industry experts for medical communicators at all levels of experience and designed to remain useful as reference guides. AMWA's ES Express package combined enrolment in the certificate programme with all seven workbooks and study guides. Buying the modules together was intended to provide convenience and affordability.
In 2015, AMWA recommended its Essential Skills self-study bundle as an option for an early-career member seeking to demonstrate a skill set.
Development of the self-study route
In autumn 2009, a statistics module joined self-study modules on basic grammar and usage, sentence structure and patterns, and punctuation. Credit for the statistics module could count toward either the core or the science fundamentals certificate.
The release of the Essential Ethics for Medical Communications self-study workshop at AMWA's 2011 annual conference made it possible to earn the Essential Skills certificate entirely through self-study. By 2016, the ES Express package offered all seven individual modules together with certificate programme enrolment.