5 Skills An Administrative Assistant Diploma Will Help You Develop

When it comes to pursuing an administrative assistant diploma, most people are familiar with aspects such as document processing, filing, and other related tasks; but people who become administrative assistants deal with a wide variety of responsibilities that go beyond that. 

In this blog, we’ll discuss five essential skills that an Administrative Assistant diploma program will help you develop, ones that most people may not think of. 

• Typing speed 

Having a relatively fast typing speed is a very important component of any kind of job, but especially for admin assistants. An administrative assistant diploma program would have implemented a class where students can specifically focus on improving the speed and accuracy of their typing, making them more employable once they graduate. 

Many jobs in professional fields, including administrative assistants or transcriptionists, want their employees to aim for a typing accuracy rate of 97 per cent, which is no more than three mistakes per every 100 words. Being good at typing improves efficiency and will make the job go more smoothly.

• Interpersonal skills

Post-secondary courses or diplomas don’t often teach interpersonal skills, but it’s a crucial skill for people who want to become administrative assistants, as they will be the representatives of the company they work for and the first point of contact. 

An administrative assistant diploma program will focus on teaching students how to conduct themselves in an office environment and continue to maintain professional communication and behaviour, both with workers internally and external clients. As well, students in the program will learn how they should conduct themselves in an office setting and what procedures are necessary for proper etiquette and manner when they’re in the field. 

• Software skills 

There’s many programs that administrative assistants will need to be proficient in. This includes but is not limited to Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and many more. The softwares used to teach students in an administrative assistant diploma program should be industry standard and up-to-date with the latest versions and updates. 

The computer software skills that students acquire not only helps them to work with those programs, but will also allow them to learn other programs more easily, especially ones that the company may be using, as they normally have similar interfaces.

• Human resources

Administrative assistants can also be involved in the hiring process for new employees or assist in other types of management for employees. In the diploma program for this field, students are able to learn strategic approaches to effectively manage people for the company they work for, which will allow their business to gain a competitive advantage over others. 

This goes hand-in-hand with learning interpersonal skills, as you will not be able to implement human resources management without having good and approachable relations with the rest of the employees at the company. 

• Accounting

Accounting is usually not associated with administrative assistants, but many people in the role are multitaskers and do practice accounting. When there might not be dedicated accountants to help out, or the accountants need some additional help, administrative assistants have to handle things like payroll, bookkeeping, and more. 

In an administrative assistant diploma program, students learn how to deal with everyday financial transactions, sales, receipts, and payments, which are now common in many business and other organizational settings. 

With these five skills, you’ll become a well-rounded administrative assistant, but in addition to that, it will also help you out in your everyday life, whether that’s with finances, relationship-building, or understanding correspondence.  

Enrolling in ABM College’s Administrative Assistant Diploma program will give you a leading advantage to kick start your career, as the additional skills it teaches gives students extra value for the future, and provides in-depth, industry-standard software training.