Modern languages graduate Claire Huxtable is delighted to be taking the next steps towards her chosen career as a multi lingual executive PA.
Having graduated from the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2008 with French, German and Spanish, Claire took a year out to live and work in Quebec in order to practice her French further. Claire explained, “I landed a contract through the British Council to teach English as a foreign language to 11 to 16 year olds in Quebec City and I loved it. Everyone was so friendly and it gave me the opportunity to take my French to the next level.”
Now back in the UK, Claire has taken the next step towards securing her career as a multi-lingual PA by enrolling on the Executive PA with Shorthand Diploma course through Pitman Training in Plymouth.
“I actually first contacted Pitman over a year ago,” she said, “and enrolled when I came back from Quebec. It’s going really well, I’m really enjoying it. For me, this diploma gives me the full range of PA secretarial and administrative skills that I will need in a PA position.”
Claire also took the opportunity to enrol on one of the many French language courses running through the training centre’s language arm – The Language Zone.
“The course I’m doing is the Français Commercial which is a specialist business French language course and allows me to keep up my French whilst developing my business vocabulary further,” she said. “I’m hoping that once I’ve completed my diploma, I should have some pretty strong qualifications that will help me launch my career.”
Fellow Pitman diploma student Carrie Baxter agrees. “For me, this is all about a change of direction of my career,” she said. Carrie is a fully trained midwife having studied midwifery at the University of Plymouth before moving to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 2005. “I have always wanted to be a midwife,” Carrie explained, “and was very pleased to have achieved my goal. But overall I found it extremely stressful and with very long anti-social hours.
“So after working for a couple of years in Oxford and then a further stint in Truro, I came to the decision that I wanted to change the direction of my career and pursue a new path as a PA.” Having researched the job market on the skills demanded by employers in this area, Carrie decided to pursue the Executive PA with shorthand diploma.
“This diploma will give me the key skills I’ll need to work effectively as a PA,” said Carrie, “and will very much complement the great experience and person skills I’ve gained from my midwifery background.”
Carrie has passed her first few modules in Excel, Word and PowerPoint with flying colours and is now getting to grips with Teeline shorthand and minute taking. “My studies are going well,” she said. “I’m really loving it”!
