The Society runs its own distance-learning course, ‘Training in Indexing’ which leads to Accreditation and Professional Membership of the Society. Whether you are interested in developing a professional career in indexing, or would like to extend your knowledge of indexing in order to enhance your professional development, the course has been designed for you.
The current 5th Edition of the training equips you with the skills necessary to start a career in indexing. The course includes the following:
- Four self-study course modules*
- Access to a course adviser to support your learning
- Practical exercises to develop skills* delivered through a dedicated learning platform
- Extensive in-depth feedback on assignments and tests to guide your skill development
- Practical indexing experience in group online tutorials with guided discussion from a tutor
- Self-study workshop on e-book and embedded indexing
- A final full length index task with feedback from an established indexer to prepare you for your first commercial index
- Tutors, advisers and assessors who are highly experienced indexers
- Additional resources to support and progress your learning
The course provides you with a detailed and thorough grounding in the basic principles of indexing, the production of useful, well-structured indexes, and it develops the skills essential for a career in professional indexing. Information on embedded indexing and e-publishing gives insights into the digital publishing environment
As a student, you are allocated a course adviser—an experienced professional indexer—who will support your learning from Module B through to Module D. There are formal tests at the start and end of the course but in between these tests, indexing assignments provide a staged progression of indexing challenges supported with detailed one-to-one feedback explaining clearly how students can improve. Three online group tutorials with tutor-led discussion give you further opportunity for practice and discussion of indexing principles, and the chance to learn from, and with, your peers. A dedicated student discussion forum, and access to an elected Student Representative, provide for further student interaction.
You will need a high level of English language proficiency for the course; when you achieve Accreditation, you will have reached a high standard of indexing ready for commercial indexing work.
You can start the course at any time and pay for each module as you progress through the course at your own speed, with four years allowed to complete.
Course Components
- four modules with assessment on the first and last module
- practice exercises to consolidate the learning of theory delivered through a dedicated learning platform
- three non-assessed indexing assignments with individual feedback from a tutor
- three online tutorials led by an experienced indexer
- an online workshop on e-Book and embedded indexing
- a final non-assessed pre-qualification indexing assignment creating an index to a full-length book
This document sets out each stage of the course, and what needs to be completed, in chronological order.
The course is delivered through this website and, in addition to the study and practice materials, there is an extensive Resources area providing useful information and links, and further practice indexes with sample index solutions.
Try it out first
To see if you have aptitude for indexing, try our pre-enrolment exercises.
For a sample extract from Module A click here.
You may also purchase Module A and receive a month’s access to the training site before deciding whether to become a member of SI and enrol for the course.
Prices
For a full breakdown of the prices for the entire course see prices.
Feedback on the course
Read some comments on the previous edition of the course from recent students.
Read more about the Training Course in our blog series.
* Elements of the course (the modules and practice exercises are licensed to the American Society for Indexing (ASI), who deliver a course based on the earlier 4th Edition modules.
