Secretarial skills can make you an invaluable member of a whole range of companies and organisations, from a GP clinic to a law firm. Take a look at the secretarial courses on offer to start your journey…

Admin and office skills are the cornerstone of most businesses. Having office-based secretarial knowledge will make you an essential part of any team. Depending on the level of secretarial experience you have, your role might mean you are responsible for the day-to-day running of an organisation, planning meetings, and conferences or you may undertake more routine clerical duties like answering the phones, typing, maintaining records, and dealing with daily correspondence. Branching from this, are more specialised secretarial roles such as medical and legal secretaries, or paralegals.

A medical secretary will be involved with providing support in clinics, a GP practice or more specifically for doctors and physicians. Duties will vary from typing up medical notes, retrieving patient records for appointments, updating the practice database and taking calls. A legal secretary/paralegal is someone who works in the legal profession assisting lawyers. They work for a law firm or an in-house legal department and help prepare documents, appeals and motions. As a result, they should have knowledge of law and legal procedures. Anyone wanting to take this secretarial route can gain the required skills through training centres or from law firms willing to train. So if being the next Moneypenny or Joan Holloway from Mad Men appeals, then pencils at the ready and start taking some notes!