A couple of things have hit the headlines in the last month or so that prove training in office and PA skills really can change your career direction – and your life!
Stella English bagged her dream job with Lord Sugar in The Apprentice – she left school with no qualifications, but then decided to retrain as a PA and carved out a career with a Japanese bank, progressing to a management position. Her quick-thinking and exceptional organisational skills didn’t go unnoticed and the rest, as they say...
If, like us, you took the opportunity to pay a return visit to the fabulous Downton Abbey when the series was repeated on New Year’s Day, you might remember the timid – but definitely determined – housemaid Gwen who is caught red-handed with a typewriter (shock, horror!). It turned out that she was “getting ideas above her station” and taking a correspondence course in typing as she dreamt of leaving service and becoming a secretary.
When the telephone – that new-fangled invention – reaches Downton, Lady Sybil has taken Gwen under her wing and discovers that the telephone company owner is looking for a secretary. It turns out what Gwen lacked in office experience, she gained in skills through her studies and in Episode Six even mentioned “...and I’ve done Pitman Shorthand.”
Good for you Gwen, we’re sorry we might not see you in the next series, but from everyone at Pitman Training we wish you the best of luck in your new career – oh, and thanks for the plug too!