Office stenographers can accomplish their training in about six months with business school transcription and dictation education. Business office stenographers use shorthand to take dictation at meetings for the eventual creation of permanent company records.
Court reporters tend to need two to four years of college education to accurately record legal proceedings. In states that allow the voice method of court reporting, certification must be obtained from the National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA). The Certified Verbatim Reporter (CVR) and Certificate of Merit (CM) are accepted and preferred in states that allow the voice method of court reporting. Stenographers who are CVR(s) have passed a written test of spelling, punctuation and vocabulary along with legal and medical terminology acuity. In addition, CVR(s) must pass speed, accuracy and silence tests of three five-minute dictation and transcription examinations. The CM has more stringent requirements of proving additional levels of speed, knowledge, and accuracy.
Programs certified by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) ensure students meet learning goals of 205 stenography words per minute for those seeking to work for the federal government . For positions working for the state, state licensure is often required. NCRA certifies about 110 stenography training programs that teach the use of audio-capture technology and speech recognition equipment and train students to pass tests for state licensure.
CART reporters must receive training to use the CART system to provide translation of speech to text for the hearing impaired. Stenocaptioners create television broadcast captions for the hearing impaired. For those kinds of stenographers, the National Verbatim Reporters Association issues the Real-Time Verbatim Reporter (RVR) certificate. RVR(s) have passed tests that measure CART reporting and captioning in addition to real-time transcription and judicial reporting.