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16th Sep 2009
Careers Centre > Secretarial Courses

The changing role of the secretary and PA

Research recently conducted by Hemsley Fraser has identified a number of significant changes in the role of PAs and has found that the modern PA is now just as likely to be leading teams and managing projects as taking minutes and managing diaries.

Our survey found that over 47% of PAs had experienced a significant change in their role in the last 6 months. This research is backed by a recent report by recruitment specialist Office Team that found that over 60% of PAs carry out more office management tasks than traditional secretarial duties, with 71% regularly organising company events, 64% organising conferences and 58% writing company reports.

"The research confirms what we are seeing through working with PAs throughout Europe. The gap between PAs and management roles has narrowed as managers embrace lap-tops and email communication and take on more and more of the organisational and report writing tasks that traditionally would have been delegated to their PA. Conversely, PAs are increasingly leading projects, managing budgets and collating reports " explains Bob Gunby, Product Marketing Manager at Hemsley Fraser.

"Whilst our traditional secretarial and administrative skills courses continue to be popular, these findings have been backed up by the huge increase in demand amongst PAs and office professionals for our specialist areas of training such as project management, event organisation, budget management, people management and recruitment. As a result of this demand we have recently launched a number of new courses specifically for PAs seeking a wider skill base, and our popular conferences focus on the challenges of tackling issues that a few years ago wouldn't have been part of their remit."

The report also found that over 20% of PAs spent half their day working for someone other than their bosses, which is further evidence of the wider scope of their role.

Jean Sutcliffe, a senior Learning and Development Consultant with Hemsley Fraser identifies the increasing use of project management as a major cause of the trend.

"As more and more organisations adopt a project based approach, PAs are being called upon to move from an administrative to a project support and co-ordination role. Consequently we have experienced a distinct shift in emphasis on a number of our leading PA development courses to focus more on the project management, interpersonal and communication skills"

Useful links

Project Management for the Office Professional

Providing Administrative Support for Projects

An Introduction to Successful Conferences and Events

Making Sense of Finance - Essential Knowledge for Office Professionals/Secretaries and PAs

Secretarial, PA and Administrator Conference - Being Brilliant!



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