Home / Non-Accredited / Administration & Office Support / Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant and Administrator Training (3 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant and Administrator Training (3 days)
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Next Public Course Date:
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Length: 3 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 14,997 EX VAT 3 Person R 11,205 EX VAT 10 Person R 8,120 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant and Administrator Training (3 days)
Assistants who run their executive's diary, office and meetings so well that the executive can concentrate on the work only they can do.
A strong executive or personal assistant multiplies the output of the person they support. A weak one costs the executive hours every week in missed messages, double-booked diaries, lost documents and meetings that go nowhere. This three-day personal assistant course gives EAs, PAs, secretaries and administrators the habits, systems and confidence to run the executive office properly.
Day one is about the role: adapting to your manager's style, managing the diary and priorities, gatekeeping, confidentiality, business writing and the special tasks assistants are handed. Day two turns everyday know-how into a written office procedures guide, so the office keeps running when you are on leave. Day three is a full day on meetings – planning, venues and virtual options, supporting the chair, handling disruptions and taking minutes that people act on.
The course is practical throughout. Delegates set up their own diary rules, write and test a real procedure, and minute a practice meeting, then leave with an action plan to agree with their manager.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Executives who spend less time on admin and more on decisions
- An office that keeps running when the assistant is away
- Shorter, better-run meetings with clear minutes and follow-up
- Confidential information handled with care and discretion
- One professional standard across all your assistants
For your delegates
- A clear agreement with your manager on responsibilities and limits
- Practical tools for diary, workload and inbox control
- A written, tested procedure for your own office
- Confidence to organise, support and minute any meeting
What delegates will be able to do
- Adapt to their manager's working style and agree responsibilities and decision limits
- Manage a busy executive diary and their own workload using clear priorities
- Act as an effective gatekeeper, filtering requests and saying no diplomatically
- Handle confidential information and awkward situations with discretion
- Write clear emails, letters and briefing notes for the executive's office
- Document office procedures in a consistent format that a stand-in can follow
- Plan and prepare meetings: attendees, venue or virtual platform, agenda and papers
- Support the chair in keeping a meeting on time and on track
- Take accurate minutes and track actions through to completion
Who should attend
Executive assistants, personal assistants, secretaries, office administrators and anyone who supports one or more managers. It suits newly appointed assistants who need the full picture quickly, and experienced assistants who want to formalise how they work and take on more responsibility for meetings.
Course outline
Day 1 – The assistant's role and working relationship
Working with your manager
- Reading and adapting to your manager's working style
- Anticipating needs before you are asked
- Getting your responsibilities and decision limits agreed in writing
- Knowing when to act on your own initiative and when to check first
- Case study: the first ninety days with a new executive
Professional skills behind the role
- Social intelligence: reading people and situations
- Business acumen: your organisation's goals, numbers and calendar
- Active listening and asking the right questions
- Building relationships with other assistants and departments
Diary, time and workload
- Diary rules: meeting blocks, buffers, travel time and focus time
- Preparing for clashes, changes and last-minute surprises
- Keeping others on track with reminders and follow-ups
- The urgent-important matrix for your work and your manager's
- Planning tomorrow today and setting weekly goals
Tools of the trade
- Email protocol and managing your manager's inbox
- Telephone and voicemail standards for the executive office
- Business writing: letters, memos and briefing notes
- Online research and preparing information packs
- Getting the most from office equipment and software
Gatekeeping and confidentiality
- Filtering calls, visitors, requests and information
- Saying no without damaging relationships
- Handling difficult and persistent people
- Recognising manipulation and social engineering
- Your duty of confidentiality and POPIA in the executive office
- What to do in awkward or compromising situations
Special tasks
- Coordinating small projects for your executive
- Supporting exhibitions, trade shows and site visits
- Dealing with clients and senior stakeholders
- Supporting the executive's social media and online presence
Day 2 – Documenting how the office works
Why the office needs written procedures
- Business continuity when the assistant is away
- Succession planning and smooth handovers
- What internal and external auditors look for
- Recovering after a system failure, power outage or other disruption
Finding the procedures that matter
- Logging your tasks over a typical week
- Asking the executive and colleagues what they rely on you for
- Capturing and grouping tasks in a spreadsheet
- Choosing the first procedures to document
Writing procedures a stand-in can follow
- One standard template for every procedure
- Numbered steps and bullet points instead of long paragraphs
- Getting the level of detail right
- Testing a procedure by asking a colleague to follow it
- Worked examples: travel bookings, expense claims, board packs and leave requests
Organising and protecting the guide
- Contents page, sections and numbered procedures
- Paper binder, shared drive or both
- Keeping passwords and confidential information out of the guide
- Secure storage and version control
Launching and maintaining the guide
- Review and sign-off by the executive
- Briefing colleagues and stand-ins
- Keeping the guide where people will use it
- Collecting suggestions and keeping it current
Day 3 – Meetings that work
Planning and preparing the meeting
- Deciding who needs to attend and who only needs the outcome
- Choosing the time, place and format
- Building an agenda with time allocations and owners
- Gathering papers and sending invitations and meeting packs
- Logistics: room, catering, parking and equipment
The meeting room and virtual meetings
- Essentials and finishing touches for the meeting room
- Room layouts and when to use each
- Choosing a virtual or hybrid platform such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet
- Testing links, sound and screen sharing
- Planning for load-shedding and poor connections
Roles in a meeting
- The chairperson, the minute taker and the attendees
- How the assistant supports the chair before, during and after
- Board, management, team and project meetings compared
- Adjusting for large and small meetings
Keeping the meeting on track
- Starting well and using the agenda to steer discussion
- Using a parking lot for off-topic items
- Managing time and dealing with overruns
- Handling disruptions: late arrivals, phones, tangents and personality clashes
- Holding participants accountable for their actions
Minutes and follow-up
- What minutes are for and what to record
- Action minutes versus detailed minutes
- A minutes template you can use immediately
- Practice: minuting a short simulated meeting
- Circulating minutes and tracking actions to completion
Making meetings count
- Shorter meetings: the 50-minute meeting and stand-ups
- Keeping energy up in longer sessions
- Your action plan to agree with your manager
- Evaluation and close
How it is delivered
Three days, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20; examples tailored to your executives, calendar and email tools on request. Workbook, procedure template and minutes template included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“We have been very impressed with their service and rollout of the training.”
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of facilitation and the practical relevance of the content presented. The programme was delivered with professionalism, clarity, and a strong emphasis on real-world application.”
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of facilitation and the practical relevance of the content presented. The programme was delivered with professionalism, clarity, and a strong emphasis on real-world application”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa; we can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online.
How many people can attend?
From one assistant to groups of about 20. Training all your assistants together gives the organisation one standard for diaries, procedures and minutes.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
How is this different from the two-day course?
The two-day Executive Assistant course covers the assistant's role and office procedures, with meetings in a single module. This three-day course adds a full day on planning, supporting and minuting meetings.
Can we change the content of one of the days?
Yes. On request, one day can be replaced with a related BOTI one-day topic such as business writing, time management or telephone etiquette, so the programme fits your assistants' development needs.
Can you run this course in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban?
Yes. We train on site at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and across South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online so a team spread over several offices can attend together.