Secretary
Secretaries provide administrative support for all types of organisations.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
In your day-to-day tasks you could:
- be the first point of contact for visitors, phone calls and emails
- arrange meetings and take minutes
- manage an individual or team diary and make travel arrangements
- produce letters, reports, spreadsheets and invoices
- update records on IT systems
- photocopy, print and file documents
- handle confidential information
Working environment
You could work in an office.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could become a personal assistant or supervise a team as an office manager.
With further qualifications you could move into specialist secretarial work like human resources, education, legal or medical secretarial work.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- administration skills
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to work well with others
- excellent written communication skills
- the ability to work on your own
- to be flexible and open to change
- excellent verbal communication skills
- the ability to organise your time and workload
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- applying directly
You may find it useful to take a course in administration or secretarial skills. Colleges offer full-time and part-time courses, including awards, certificates and diplomas. Useful subjects include:
- Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Business Administration
- Level 2 Award in Touch Typing, Audio Transcription or Shorthand
- Level 2 Certificate in IT User Skills
- T Level in Management and Administration
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or equivalent, for a level 2 course
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, for a level 3 course
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths for a T Level
More Information
You could do a business administrator advanced apprenticeship.
This typically takes 18 months to complete as a mix of workplace learning and off-the-job study.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
More Information
You could start as an administration assistant and work towards this role.
Employers may be more interested in your computer, telephone and office skills than your formal qualifications, although you may be expected to have some GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) including English.
Volunteering, for example with a charity, could help you to get some relevant experience. It's a good way of developing IT and office skills that are valued by employers.
You can find volunteering opportunities through The National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Do IT.
You could apply directly if you've got relevant skills and experience from working in an office.
You could also do a temping job to get into this kind of role. Temporary jobs can help you to build up your experience and could lead to permanent employment.
Further information
You can find out more about becoming a secretary from the Institute of Administrative Management.
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This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.