Audio Transcription - courses and job info?

Home_Alone_2

Op - it is highly unlikely that you could go straight into medical or legal transcription without several years experience and an agency specialising in those fields will take up references.

As a poster mentioned above there are home transcription jobs for interview transcriptions but I personally think they are difficult as people do mumble.

As I mentioned, go to a reputable office agency and have a chat. That is how I became a medical typist. I had audio typing experience but not in medicine. I started a temp job as a clerk in a hospital. In my breaks I asked if I could practice audio typing for doctors of tapes that had already been typed but not erased, so I could practice, and with the aid of Google for finding out correct spellings, I am now a fully experienced medical typist.

You need to be proactive and push yourself and offer to help people out with their audio typing workload. It will probably take a few months, so be sure it is what you want to do.

Another good idea is do voluntary work in an office, even at weekends. You will possibly be able to get some audio experience there.

Have a look at this website and see what there is for you:
http://www.do-it.org/

chocsessential

I started a temp job as a clerk in a hospital. In my breaks I asked if I could practice audio typing for doctors of tapes that had already been typed but not erased, so I could practice, and with the aid of Google for finding out correct spellings, I am now a fully experienced medical typist.


I like that idea, that's what I call taking the initiative :j

Home_Alone_2

Thanks Chocs:beer:

coolstorybro

Thanks again everyone! There is a branch of Office Angels near me, so I'll pay them a visit on my day off and see what they recommend with regards to on-job learning. I'll keep you all updated!

loulou123

I did audio transcription as part of a legal secretary course a few years ago, and whilst the course covers the basics, each organisation will have its own way of doing things so no course can cover layout of documents etc really.

I always found audio transcription relatively easy to do, but it does get annoying when the person talking is eating/smoking/talking to someone else at the same time/driving etc etc.

Personally i would start off with organisations away from law and medicine until you have a feel for the job, as these are the jobs where they will be especially expecting 100% accuracy.

sagalout1954

See if your Local Authority or hospital (if you have one) have their own 'temp' registers - both of ours do and it's a great way to get your foot in the door. If there is a local big company you fancy working for give their HR a ring and ask if they have their own temp register, if not which agency do they use.

The best way into a permanent job isn't always a temp agency, some (most?) want a fee from the company if you're taken on permanently and they placed you there in the first place, so see if you can get directly in to a company on a temp basis if possible.

Excellent typing speed by the way - mine's only about 40+ (on a good day).

coolstorybro

Sorry for bringing up an 'old' thread, but I promised I'd keep people posted on what I was doing.

I decided in the end that looking for training as a secretary rather than simply audio transcription was the best way forward. Turns out that Pitman do a diploma for just this sort of thing. I contacted them last week and recently stepped in to meet with the branch manager who discussed the whole thing with me.

They asked me a lot of questions, some I felt were somewhat irrelevent and the whole thing felt akin to a job interview. I wasn't offended, just puzzled. Then I was allowed to sample the course for myself. It's mostly using the microsoft packages, etc, and the booklet I was given suggested this was the main bulk of the course. There are one or two other areas, such as documentation and also a section on audio transcription, but bookeeping, for example, was offered as an optional elective rather than a core part of the course. Learning how to write Minutes was also absent from the list.

I took a typing test while there, and a tutor sitting with me essentially told me that I couldn't type properly because I glance down at the keys every five seconds or so. My accuracy was recorded as low (91%), too, because the shift key was stiff and therefore letters than were supposed to be capitalised came out in lower case consistantly. She didn't take that into account, for some reason. When I was finally taken back into the office, I was given a quote for the diploma - £3000 :eek:. I then had the touch typing course suggested to me as an extra, to make it £3400. I couldn't believe the price for what is mainly a Microsoft training package with a few extras thrown in. You're not even taught in a classroom by a tutor - you do it all yourself on one of their computers.

I felt she was trying to make an extra buck by throwing in the touch typing. I may be self-taught and I may not be a 'touch typist', but my speed is above average and my accuracy is between 95% - 100% even on a bad day. In other words, I don't need an expensive course to make me relearn something I can already do. I am by no means poo-pooing touch typing, but I am sure I can learn it myself at home using a free program downloaded from the internet.

So...I've been doing further research and found another secretarial course by Souters, and also a beginners course that is more condensed and basic:

www . souterstraining . com

Veeeery different price-wise, and also containing the office proceedural training I desired from the beginning.

The point of this long post is to enquire as to whether anyone has anything good (or bad) to say about Souter. Is it well recognised? It will be a tedious journey to get to their training center so it needs to be worth it (though the thought of saving over £2000 is incentive enough).

Thank you in advance ~ :A

LittleVoice

coolstorybro wrote: »

I took a typing test while there, and a tutor sitting with me essentially told me that I couldn't type properly because I glance down at the keys every five seconds or so. My accuracy was recorded as low (91%), too, because the shift key was stiff and therefore letters than were supposed to be capitalised came out in lower case consistantly.

Hi, I don't know Souter but your experience of Pitman reminded me of my own - but a very, very long time ago. I was actually on a course with them - intensive speed development. I was called in to the senior teacher's office and told off for not doing things properly and that I had to slow down in order to succeed. Fortunately that dressing down was after taking the final test from which we would receive certificates. Having been told that I was rubbish, I received my certificate as fastest typist in that week's group. It was taken on an old (old even then) manual typewriter - 78 wpm with 98% accuracy.

coolstorybro

LittleVoice wrote: »

Hi, I don't know Souter but your experience of Pitman reminded me of my own - but a very, very long time ago. I was actually on a course with them - intensive speed development. I was called in to the senior teacher's office and told off for not doing things properly and that I had to slow down in order to succeed. Fortunately that dressing down was after taking the final test from which we would receive certificates. Having been told that I was rubbish, I received my certificate as fastest typist in that week's group. It was taken on an old (old even then) manual typewriter - 78 wpm with 98% accuracy.

That's an amazing speed! :T

They're really quite silly, aren't they? I completely understand the benefits of touch typing, but I see no point in relearning something you can already do. If I do manage to get a secretarial job, I'll only end up typing my own way, anyway. There's no point spending hundreds of pounds on learning it.