What Are Administrative Skills
The set of administrative skills mainly deals with the capacity to perform various organizational activities. Moreover some basic kind of technical things or activities also fall under the purview of administrative skills. These skills have developed and evolved over time. Especially, in the last few decades, people having administrative skills are enjoying good scope in terms of job and remuneration. Though the works seem to be quite simple for the outsiders, but, in reality, experts always enjoy the best of the benefits.
If you are aiming to become a personal assistant or administrative assistant, then you must possess various administrative skills. There is no alternative for this. The main administrative skills include the skills of preparing presentations for the person to whom one is reporting, taking notes and dictations and organization of files or management of records. Tremendous amount of legwork is associated at most of the times in any administrative work. So, having administrative skills is a different thing, and performing when it matters is another.
The definition and purview of administrative skills vary depending upon the industry. For example, a personal assistant reporting to legal experts will be required to perform a specific set of administrative works; which will be completely different from the works of an assistant reporting to an IT chief.
With the continuous changes and development in the world of technology, the job of administrative assistants is becoming quite demanding. Now-a-days, computer skills along with the knowledge of basic software, some DTP skills, and internet skills have also been included under administrative skills.
There are a plenty of certifications available for various kinds of administrative skills. Some courses will cover many such skills. On the other hand, some will cover only one or two. So, depending upon your aim in life and available options, you can chose to combine the required ones or go for a package. A lot depends upon your country of residence and the available job opportunities.
Any administrative or personal assistant must be a more than average communicator. He or she would be required to reply to calls, prepare speeches and replies. So, it’s mandatory that the assistant is well versed with the target language and have a good approach towards others.
Administrative skills also include the capacity to type at a good speed. The industry wise target or specifications will vary. But, an average of 45-50 words per minute is quite welcome. Moreover, ticketing skills along with the expertise in making travel arrangements is another point which should be included under administrative skills. So, this can be seen that most of the skills termed as administrative skills require practice rather than a degree or certificate. There’s no doubt about that.