6 administrative assistant courses to equip you for success

Administrative assistants go by many names, but whether they're called office assistants, personal assistants, or office administrators, they're all essential to the success of their varied workplaces. Administrative professionals act as the glue that holds the office together. Handling everything from booking travel arrangements to fielding phone calls to keeping all the office's essential information well organized and easily to hand, administrative assistants seem to truly do it all. If you're interested in this career path, there are several helpful administrative assistant courses that can position you for success.

Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence (PACE) Program

The American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP) offers PACE certification to help dedicated professionals demonstrate their commitment to excellence as administrative assistants. The ASAP PACE certification program includes four courses:

Interpersonal communication: Master both verbal and written communication skills including negotiation, persuasion, and conflict management.
Task & project management: Enhance your time management skills and learn tricks for organizing your workspace, handling event planning, and managing complex projects.
Computer & internet technology: Learn the best practices for video conferencing, communicating with IT professionals, managing cloud storage, and protecting intellectual property online.
Management skills: Understand how to lead effectively, manage productivity levels, and efficiently handle decision-making.

Each of these courses includes training videos, a study guide, and practice exam questions. The self-guided program is available online on-demand, so participants can review the material on their own schedules. Once a month, you can participate in a Q&A session with the course instructor. Upon enrollment, you have one year to complete the courses and pass the exam.

If you prefer live interaction as part of your educational program, you can enroll in PACE+. This gives you access to all the features of regular PACE program enrollment as well as a one-day prep course that includes six full hours of instruction. You can attend this course online, in person, or at the annual Administrative Professionals Conference. PACE+ classes take place in May and October.

Regular PACE enrollment is $375 and PACE+ is $595. Both options include the PACE certification exam.

Administrative Assistant Career Diploma

Several colleges and vocational schools offer administrative assistant career diplomas. You can pursue this type of training in person at a campus location near you, or take your courses online. With this educational background, you can show employers that you're invested in pursuing this career path. The courses in these diploma programs typically cover topics like:

Workplace communication
Professional skills development
Administrative and office procedures
Computer skills and applications
Bookkeeping, filing, and office management

Most programs take six to 10 months to complete depending on your schedule and the amount of time you can dedicate to coursework in a semester. Fees vary by institution but are usually between $600 and $800.

"Handling everything from booking travel arrangements to fielding phone calls to keeping all the office's essential information well organized and easily to hand, administrative assistants seem to truly do it all."

Skillsoft Administrative Skills Track

Skillsoft offers an abundance of educational courses to help professionals succeed in their careers. The Skillsoft administrative skills track includes four courses:

Administrative support: Developing your essential skills
Administrative support: Working in partnership with your boss
Administrative support: Interacting effectively with colleagues
Administrative support: A positive professional image

Each course includes a minimum of six videos, an assessment, and a completion badge. The administrative skills track also includes a book, "The High Potential's Advantage: Get Noticed, Impress Your Bosses, and Become a Top Leader," and an audiobook, "The Definitive Executive Assistant and Managerial Handbook."

Skillsoft is a subscription service that allows access to these courses and thousands more for a monthly or yearly fee. As an individual subscriber, you'll pay $19 a month or $199 a year for access to all of Skillsoft's training tools. Once you've completed the administrative skills track courses, you can branch out and build your skill set further with courses on organizational skills, office management, budgeting, Microsoft Office, and more.

AMA Administrative Support Training Courses

The American Management Association (AMA) offers administrative support training courses to help professionals hone essential skills, from basic executive management to efficient delegation. There are six courses to choose from:

Managing chaos: Dynamic time management, recall, reading, and stress management skills for administrative professionals
Project management for administrative professionals
AMA's business grammar workshop
Communicating with confidence
Management skills for administrative professionals
Partnering with your boss: Strategic skills for administrative professionals

These courses are available online or in person at select locations. In person, each of these seminars fills either two or three days. Two-day seminars give you 1.2 continuing education units (CEU). These cost $1,995 for non-members or $1,795 for AMA members. With three days of instruction, you'll receive 1.8 CEU. These three-day seminars are $2,195 for non-members or $1,995 for members.

AMA also offers three helpful webinars for administrative assistants. These are $199 each. You can choose from:

Taking effective and accurate meeting minutes
Advanced Microsoft Word tips and techniques
Powerful email writing tips to make your message stand out

Udemy Administrative Assistant Skills Courses

Udemy is a wildly diverse online learning platform with over 196,000 video courses to choose from. Every month, new courses are added to the online offerings, so this is a handy resource for continuing professional development. While Udemy doesn't offer any fancy certifications to dress up your resume, it will equip you with the knowledge and skills that you need to ace your interview, excel at your job, and manage the office like a seasoned pro, even if you're new to the profession.

Once you purchase a course, you'll enjoy lifetime access to the information. This means that you don't have to take diligent notes or command a perfect memory to always have this info on hand. You can go back for a refresher anytime to keep your skills sharp.

Some of the courses that you can choose from include:

Becoming an administrative assistant
12 secrets only the best administrative assistants know
Administrative assistant hiring boot camp
Become an admin and office manager

Courses range anywhere from $20 to $85. The amount of content in each course varies wildly, from less than an hour of lectures to five hours or more of valuable information.

ed2go Advanced Career Training

ed2go offers two types of courses for administrative professionals. If you're new to the field and want to master the basics, you can sign up for one of the fundamentals courses. These include:

Administrative assistant applications
Administrative assistant fundamentals
Administrative assistant suite
Basic computer skills suite
Computer skills for the workplace

If you already have some experience as an administrative assistant, you can pursue one of the advanced career training courses. These are designed to prepare you for specific certification exams within the industry including the Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) certification from the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) and the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification. These certifications look outstanding when you're uploading your resume.

You can find job opportunities for administrative assistants in industries ranging from education to aerospace. If you enjoy handling organizational tasks, time management, and both internal and external communications, this could be the perfect job for you. These administrative assistant courses can help you start building out a powerful skill set that's suited perfectly to this career path.