Personal assistants and other secretaries provide administrative and secretarial support to individuals, departmental or management teams within organisations.

Tasks

  • Acts as a first point of contact for a manager or team with colleagues and people from outside organisations, fields telephone enquiries, takes and passes on messages
  • Arranges appointments, keeps business diary, organises travel arrangements, makes reservations and organises a variety of functions
  • Opens, sorts, distributes and files correspondence (in hard copy and electronic) and deals directly with routine correspondence
  • Uses appropriate software to produce correspondence, memoranda, reports, presentations and other documents from drafts, handwritten copy or by transcribing dictation
  • Arranges and attends meetings, takes minutes and prepares records of proceedings
  • Translates documents and liaises with overseas clients and suppliers.

Entry Requirements

There are no minimum academic requirements, although entry to professional secretarial courses typically requires GCSEs/S grades. NVQs/SVQs are available in Administration at Levels 2, 3 and 4.

What could I earn?

Salaries for this occupation tend to start at £24,000 per annum and can progress up to £34,000 per annum.

Is it in growth or decline?

There are currently 16,448 employed Personal Assistants & Other Secretaries in the region.