Admin professionals to be certified

While administrative professionals perform all the roles and functions of organisations they need to have a level of certification. This was announced on Wednesday by Clayton Blackman, president of the National Association of Administrative Professionals of TT (NAAPTT).

Speaking at the launch of Administrative Professional Week (APW) 2019, held at nSa House, Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook, Blackman said every job spec in TT was recognised by a certificate.

“One thing we are looking at is certification for administrative professionals. It is very important that admin professionals get certified in their profession.

“If an admin professional is supposed to leave NP to go to BPTT, they must not only be able to walk with the knowledge but they can say, ‘I am a certified admin professional. I have 20 to 30 years of experience and this is what I can bring to the table. This is how I can add value to your organisation.’”

Blackman said administrative professionals would have full certification within a year.

The APW will start from April 28 to May3. While administrative professionals are acknowledged for their duties, Blackman said people in the public domain still looked at them as secretaries and did not know an administrative professional was the one who run an organisation.

“In fact they are not secretaries, they are administrative professionals and just like you have an accountant or an engineer, the admin professionals play a bigger role than the accountant or the engineer, or even a doctor within the organisation.

“Administrative professionals are very important to their bosses because there are those bosses who have to travel and in their absence the admin professionals are the ones who run the organisations in their boss’s absence.”

Blackman said although the CEO, chairman of the board or anyone in authority might be the spokesperson for the organisation, behind the scenes the administrative professionals are the ones who did all the work.

Founder of the association, Grace Talma said while technological change as well as social, economic and other changes had impacted heavily on the profession, an administrative professional was expected to be a leader, an innovator and a mover of mountains. Talma called on administrative professionals to engage in new skills, competencies, knowledge and attitudes.

She said there was also a call for strategic approaches to ensure an organisation continued to grow amidst changes.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the organisation was to capture the interest and passion of the young people to become active members and to take on leaderships roles.

“I suggest the organisation focus on this as the way forward. However, in order for the young ones to be challenged, they must be given the opportunity to do so. We need to listen to their needs and find ways of marrying the experience with the vibrant energies of this new generation.”