The Secretary

The Secretary course will give you the essential skills needed to be a successful and effective secretary in a modern organisation.

Delivered online through our best in class learning portal you study at your own pace but with the peace of mind that we provide tutor support throughout the course.

Our rich, immersive interactive courseware makes the learning experience fun and stress-free. Each topic is split into a series of "bite-sized" lessons which gradually build your knowledge and there are regular Tutor Marked Exercises along the way to help you consolidate your learning and track your progress. The course is designed to allow you to move quickly through topics where you have existing knowledge and skills whilst still ensuring we cover everything from first principles.

You will have access to your course material via the learning portal for 12 months so there is no time pressure but of course you can complete the course as quickly as you wish!

As a student of The Executive PA School you will also be eligible for the XO Student Discount Card.

The Secretary course consists of 15 modules:

• MS365 Excel 1
• MS365 Word 1 & 2
• MS365 PowerPoint
• MS365 Outlook
• Business Meetings
• Business Travel
• Business Writing
• Networking & Social Media
• Communication & Active Listening
• Diary Management
• Developing & Improving Office Procedures
• Petty Cash Management
• Building Interpersonal Relationships
• Understanding Organisations

Excel 1

• Create Spreadsheets, Workbooks & Templates
• Enter and Edit Data
• Create and Edit Formulas & Functions
• Format with Colours, Styles, Borders, and many other graphic elements.
• Print Worksheets & Ranges, Create Headers & Footers
• Create, Edit and Format Charts
• Relative & Absolute Cell References
• Linking WorkSheets

Word 1

• Create Documents in various Formats
• Enter, Edit and Format Text
• Delete, Copy, Paste & Move Text
• Create Paragraphs, Sections & Page Breaks
• Bullets, Numbering, Columns & Tabs
• Headers, Footers & Margins to Format Documents
• Create, Format & Edit Tables
• Insert & Edit Files, Charts, Images, Hyperlinks & Objects
• Fields, Forms & Mail Merge
• Spell-Check, Reviewing & Proofing

Word 2

• Templates, Preferences and Properties
• Document Security
• Styles
• Insert and Edit Tables & Columns
• Record and Run Macros
• Create and Edit Forms
• Import and Edit Objects such as Charts, Tables & Images
• Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bookmarks and Hyperlinks
• Advanced Mail Merge Functions
• Share Documents, Track and Merge Changes

Outlook

• Create, reply & forward emails
• Folders, Rules, Archiving&d Alerts
• Format Emails to maximise impact, adding Hyperlinks, Images & Objects
• Create, Edit & Manage Signatures
• Priority & Sensitivity Flags, Attachments, Receipts & Votes
• Address Books, Lists & Groups
• Email Etiquette

PowerPoint

• Create presentations from scratch and from Templates
• Understand and use different Views for editing presentations
• Themes, Colour Schemes, Slide Master & Bullets
• Create and Modify Templates
• Add and edit Data, Images, Objects, Clipart, Charts, Tables & Text
• Copy, Paste and Move components such as Images & Text Boxes
• Sound, Buttons & Hyperlinks
• Screenshows, Transitions, Builds & Animation
• Re-order, Hide, Duplicate & Delete Slides
• Speaker Notes & Printing

Business Travel

• Understand the importance of organisational travel policies.
• Research business travel options and alternatives.
• Plan itineraries that minimise travel time and stress for your executive.
• Understand different booking options, make and manage bookings.
• Destination guides covering essential additional information for the business traveler.
• Create comprehensive travel packs for your executive
• Manage the travel process once your executive is on their way.

Business Meetings

• Understand the different types of business meetings and their role.
• Planning business meetings.
• Create and publish agendas.
• Understand and create meeting policies.
• Supporting the chair or meeting leader during the meeting.
• Take comprehensive, accurate notes and create minutes as a record of the meeting.
• Manage delivery of delegate's actions after the meeting

Diary Management

• Use electronic calendar tools such as task managers, sharing calendars, flags, alerts and codes.
• Apply the 6 dimensions of good diary management.
• Preparing and briefing for your executive's meetings.
• Prioritising competing demands for your executive's time to decide what goes in the diary and what does not!

Business Letters

• Compose professional business letters.
• Learn effective layout and structure.
• Use Fully Blocked style and Open Punctuation.
• Avoid common grammatical an punctuation errors
• Write effective emails

Petty Cash Management

• Understand the role and importance of petty cash in the modern office.
• Security of cash and records.
• Understand and implement the process for ensuring accurate recording and management of petty cash.
• Develop the skills to be the petty cash officer in your workplace.

Office Procedures

• How to observe, analyse and record procedures.
• Use flowcharts to graphically illustrate processes.
• Track, monitor and modify processes & procedures.
• Use version control.

Understanding Organisations

• Recognise and compare dIfferent types of organisation.
• Understand concepts such as vision, mission, goals and objectives and how they impact organisational life.
• Recognise different aspects of organisational structure and culture.
• Understand organisational stakeholders and their role.

Interpersonal Relationships

• Understand the importance of strong interpersonal relationships.
• Know how to fully understand someone else's point of view using some powerful yet simple techniques.
• Building rapport as a foundation to developing a relationship.
• Recognise emotional intelligence and the role it plays in relationships.
• Learn various assertiveness techniques to ensure that you get your point across.
• Confidently deal with difficult interpersonal situations such as giving tough feedback.

Networking & Social Media

• Be able to define and understand different types of network.
• Understand the personal skills that will enable you to make more, better contacts.
• Know when and where to network and how to make the most out of "networking events".
• Use the "Sow, Tend, Harvest" model to get the best out of your networks.
• Learn how to use social media appropriately to support your networking.
• Start to build your personal "brand" and develop a supportive and productive professioanl network.

Communication & Active Listening

• Understand communication as an active 2-way process.
• Recognise and overcome barriers to effective communication.
• Learn the keys to effective verbal communication.
• Body-language and non-verbal communication.
• Understand how to be an active listener to fully understand and engage other people.

The Secretary course is aimed at existing and aspiring Secretaries who want learn new skills or enhance existing skills.

It i salso suitable for anyone wanting to pursue a career in any office environment.

There are no particular entry requirements for this course but you will need a laptop or PC with Microsoft 365.

Existing or aspiring secretaries.

Currently there are no Q&As for this course. Be the first to ask a question.

Certificate of completion

Digital certificate - Included