Receptionist/office admin skills courses?

earthbound_misfit

Ok, carrying on the potential career investigation...
I'm looking up courses that would help to start working as a receptionist, (ideally) or office work. At present I am on ESA, but looking to improve my skills for when I am ready to go back to work. I imagine I'll also need to do some voluntary work to gain a reference and some experience before finding paid work.

So, a few questions:
Local colleges offer NVQ's in 'Business Administration' - this seems to be the most relevant course I can find.
I've also been looking at Learn Direct courses and wondered if anyone had any experience of these? Are they actually useful in what they teach? They seem a better route as I can do specific courses rather than general computer skills (I am computer literate in certain areas but not office-specific ones).
And are either of these routes taken seriously by employers?

If it's of any relevance, I have quite good 'people skills' hence linking the idea of being a receptionist. I also write and am good at spelling/grammar and things like improving friends' CV's (mine is beyond hope at present!).

CharlieRabbit01

I'm an administrator and have levels 2 and 3 NVQ in Business Administration which I did through a local college.

These courses are usually work based courses I got my first full time job as a apprentice administrator and worked full time with 1 day a week at college to do Level 2, on completion of my course I was put onto a proper salary (apprentices get paid a pittance).

I was given the option to do level 3 which I took since it is free.

Most employers looking for administrators or receptionists look for people with transferable and relevant skills and usually ask for you to be computer literate.

I would suggest looking for temp work with an agency to build up some experience, if you don't have any computer qualifications or work based experience you could do the ITQ or ECDL the ECDL (European Computer Driving License) is very well known and recognised by employers.


Look up some jobs on https://www.reed.co.uk they usually give you an idea of the kind of experience or qualifications employers are looking for.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

There are many courses you could take to get a step into admin/reception.

Personally - I didnt take any courses, I got a job in a rubbish call centre but figured it was experience. I stuck to it for a year, then started working for a recruitment agency. I left there to work where i am now - Sales Admin and Event's Co'Ordinator.

When we recruit at my employment we tend not to look at the college courses but ask rather if they have experience of the following:

Word
Outlook
Excel
PowerPoint
Sage
Access

If your looking at a course i would see how many of the above it features - These are commonly found in the work place (PowerPoint/Sage and Access are a bit more rare but the other 3 are every day)

Other than that i would suggest getting as much experience as you can.

HTH a little

emsywoo123

I used to be an NVQ assessor in Business Admin (and other things!) so if you have any specific queries let me know

sugartooth

Admin courses are all worthless unless it's a proper degree.

Savvy_Sue

Worth pointing out that many 'family life skills' are transferrable to Admin / Reception, IMO. If you've brought up children, then the diplomacy, prioritising and multi-tasking skills you gain through that are invaluable.

sugartooth

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Worth pointing out that many 'family life skills' are transferrable to Admin / Reception, IMO. If you've brought up children, then the diplomacy, prioritising and multi-tasking skills you gain through that are invaluable.

Exactly what I meant. Admin work seems like common sense combined with every day basic computer literacy. Doesn't seem like you need a formal course to teach you this.

EchoLocation

Typing speed/skills and a knowledge of the MS Office programs (Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and Outlook) are usually desirable for reception work. If it's a customer facing role then I would expect proven communication and servce skills as well.

Looking for Temp work is good advice as Admin/Reception roles are the bread and butter of the temporary world.

Racheldevon

Use of microsoft office is useful, as are transferable skills from other areas, you can probably reflect on your family life.

Have you thought about offering some time to volunteering in an office environment? Somewhere like a sure start children's centre might be worth trying, and if you do go ahead and do an NVQ, you have a placement in which to carry out your required hours

EndlessStruggle

I did an IT and Admin course for free with Vision2Learn, you do it from home. They are only level 2 basic qualifications but add some voluntary work on top and you should be able to get a foot in the door. It's what I did and I've just got a job in admin.

LondonDiva

You also coul pick up skills via a voluntary role for a charity or your local hospital. Also a good way to have a current reference and gain an inside track on upcoming jobs if you prove yourself.