RSA Examinations
RSA qualifications are probably the most well known and widely recognised secretarial qualifications and are an excellent way to get your secretarial skillset up to speed. Now under the umbrella of OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations), the RSA 'own brand' qualifications comprise various awards for text processing and the newly introduced qualifications for business administration, which are designed to give staff the understanding, knowledge and skills to undertake their administrative duties according to their level of experience. If your role demands a high level of autonomy and requires you to manage communications and meetings, get involved with financial planning and recruitment, and supervise and develop staff, then the higher diplomas could be for you.

Pitman Qualifications
Pitman Qualifications, part of the City & Guilds Group, provide a comprehensive range of qualifications for office administration and international communication. These range from basic office skills training to certificates in accounting, English for business communications and diplomas in secretarial and business administration. They are suitable for all types of people, from those looking for their first qualification to seasoned professionals, and the wide-ranging nature of the subjects should prove particularly useful for support staff and help them adapt to ever-changing work environments and skill requirements.

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examination Board (LCCIEB)
LCCIEB, whose qualifications are recognised internationally by employers and professional bodies, offers a range of single-subject and group awards for admin staff. Single-subject examinations allow you to pinpoint specific skills that you need to learn or improve on: getting your word processing speed up to 45-50 wpm or above, or learning audio transcription and achieving a speed of 55wpm. The group awards allow you to build up a complete set of marketable secretarial skills, whether this is the general grounding in admin practices afforded by the Diploma in Business Administration or the advanced skills gained on the Executive Secretary's Diploma, which are geared towards high-ranking secretaries.

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs)
Designed specifically for people in work, NVQs are a good way of upgrading your skills. The NVQs in Business Administration are based on standards developed by the Council for Administration and were earmarked by the recruiters interviewed as particularly worthwhile for secretarial staff. There are varying levels of the diploma, but they are all designed to equip individuals with the skills and knowledge needed for a successful career in administration. See OCR, Pitman or LCCIEB for more details.

Teeline shorthand course
Typically associated with the older secretarial generation, shorthand seems to be going through something of a renaissance in popularity and several of the recruiters we asked identified it as valuable. Teeline courses are available from Pitman and aim to give support staff a qualification in a widely recognised system and speeds of 70wpm. Not only should this skill help you in your day-to-day working life, it could well prove a very useful string to your job-hunting bow and help you stand out from the crowd - particularly if you're a younger secretary or PA.

Computer Literacy and Information Technology (CLAIT) qualification
The CLAIT is the UK's most popular IT qualification. It comes in three levels and has been revised recently to reflect new skill demands. OCR has worked closely with employers and industry to ensure that the content of the new CLAIT suite will "remain fresh and relevant for years to come". The revamp means that skills such as electronic presentation and web design figure more prominently, which is good news for admin staff who are increasingly required to be proficient in these areas.

Private secretarial college certificates
There are a number of good secretarial colleges which can help prepare you for the secretarial world. Queen's Business and Secretarial College and the Oxford Media and Business School were two that were singled out. Queen's offers a two-term Executive and Personal Assistant's Diploma, which covers a wide range of business skills needed by today's PAs; provides two-week work placements at the end of second term; and is designed to help students "enter the workplace with confidence". The Executive PA Programme from the Oxford Media and Business School is run over 12 months and offers thorough training in the role of the PA and the use of the latest IT software and also covers management support, "giving students the confidence to work at a senior level".

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