Being a personal assistant is a challenging job. You will have to hit the ground running every single day. Even though the intensity of the work depends on who you are working for, usually PA’s are hired by really important people who have hectic scheduled which they can’t keep track of by themselves. This burden is then shifted to the PA which means that they always have to be on their toes. Efficiency, time management, people skills, are just some of the important skillsets a PA should master. On a daily basis, you will be interacting with different types of people and also keeping track of meeting and deadlines while fulfilling your own deadlines.
Because of this, aspiring PA’s should be trained properly to make sure that they don’t get overwhelmed with the work and the responsibilities. There a few online courses are available that provide you with all the basic skillsets to tackle your responsibilities as a PA. We have compiled a list of the best PA training courses online.
1. Office Administration
One of the first and most important things a PA should know is how to run an office. You need to be able to work with other people efficiently and should know all the basics of the inner working of an office. The Oxford Home Study Center is the leading UK provider of e-learning or grade courses, and they believe that their learning is unique and personal to each student. The course covers everything that you need to know about thriving in an office environment. The course takes approximately 20 hours to complete but may vary depending on various other factors. By the end of the course, students will have covered 15 different office management topics that include developing your skills invalidation, how to improve your communication skills, how to understand non-verbal messages, how to progress, and how to improve your writing skills all of which are key skills to master as a PA. The course also has the added advantage of being completely free.
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2. Administrative Professional Tips
This course is perfect for students who want to pursue a career in any kind of administrative professional jobs like being an executive assistant or a personal assistant. The course taught by April Stallworth goes through all the norms you should full fill before beginning your career. The course gives you simple but effective tips and tricks to implement on a daily basis on your job. Being a personal assistant means understanding what your boss should and should not be prioritising on a daily basis. The course is offered by LinkedIn Learning, one of the most reputed online teaching platforms in the world. The course takes approximately 3 hours to complete and you can also try out a free trial before purchasing the course. You can also start and finish the course at your own pace without any pressure.
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3. Introduction to Administrative professional jobs
This course is a complete introduction to technical management tasks, which can include tasks such as administrative assistant, senior assistant, and program assistant. If you’ve ever wondered if these jobs could be a successful career, then look no further than this lesson taught by Rosamaria Carrillo. Skillshare is an online learning platform that allows educators to download their lessons with users for free access. SkillShare also has a premium membership option that allows users to access premium courses and resources such as certificates of achievement. Of course, this class is perfect for taking if you want to be a great helper, but it is also useful for those who want to be independent as a real helper. By the end of the course, students will understand the field of management professionals, know why they can view the field as a career, know the role of management professionals in the business world, and understand what kind of skills are needed to hold these positions.
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4. Introduction to Project Management
Project management is one of the most important skill sets required to ace your PA career. This can take up a lot of time depending on your boss is and how your office environment is. These courses are offered at Alison by the Workforce Academy Partnership, which aims to connect students to business courses and services to learn whatever they want for free. These courses are longer than the other Alison courses mentioned in this list and are ideal for those who really want to focus on project management for their future career. The course is also ideal for students who want to really develop this particular skill. The course contains 11 modules on 35 different topics which include leadership skills, project performance and schedule managing. The course usually takes around 6-10 hours to complete and after the course, students can test themselves with a course assessment provided by the website. The course also has the added advantage of being free of cost.
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5. Administrative Assistant Training
This free course provides training for all kinds of assistants, be it executive or personal. The course focuses on sharpening all the required skillsets of students who are aspiring to be personal or executive assistants. The course is perfect for those who do not have time to commit to a single course totally because the curriculum is easy going and you can take your own time finishing it. Without overwhelming yourself, you can obtain training on all the basic skills required for the job. One of their main resources for business management professionals in their free monthly webinars. While you have the opportunity to sign up for future webinars, you also have the opportunity to watch recorded webinars if you have not been able to make a live show. In addition, Office Dynamics offers a free content newsletter called Monday Motivators which is delivered to your inbox every Monday. Another important perk of this course is that you can select the topics you want to learn about and eliminate topics that you feel are not necessary for your job.
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6. Assistant Essentials
As the name suggests, this course is like an essential pit stop for beginners to obtain all the essentials required to be a well-trained PA. A PA’s greatest success is to be seen as a business asset and not just an assistant. For this, you have to be proactive and efficient in your work. The course is divided into 7 sections for ease of completion.
- Essential tasks
- Meetings and minutes
- Travel planning
- Event management
- Email management
- Managing your Executive
- Common projects
Once you complete all 7 sections, you’ll be a lot more prepared and ready to take on the challenging yet rewarding job of a PA. All the 7 sections contain tasks that as you complete helps you train yourself as an efficient PA. The total course costs 180$ and is a worthy investment for your future.
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7. Fundamentals of Operations Management
This is a short tutorial provided by Alison and XSIQ that covers the fundamentals of project management. The main idea of this study is to examine the relationships and differences between performance, competition and productivity. This is a good course to follow when entering a senior assistant role because task management often involves tasks such as planning, scheduling and coordination. There is a cost check and verification at the end of this course, which means you will be able to publish your success directly on social networking sites like LinkedIn.By the end of this free online course, students will have mastered performance management techniques and how to apply those strategies to the company they work for. They will also know the features and skills of the performance manager and know what it takes to be one.
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8. Business Strategy
It is essential for good assistants to have good business interests. Knowing the business you work for is important. This onlineguide trains you in such a way that you can build your own business strategy and also help with developing key management skills and training. Having a general knowledge of good business practice is a good place to start. The guide has a lot of advice for assistants who want to improve their business strategies in their FREE guide for assistants who wish to enter into a basic business partnership with their Executive. The course also has an in-depth presentation from their Founder, Nicky Christmas, on how to improve your business skills in a sharp budget, which you can view for free.
