/ How to Become an Administrative Assistant - Salary, Job Stats & Education

Looking for a Career as an Administrative Assistant?

Administration covers a wide range of tasks and responsibilities, and studying professional administration for business is an ideal way to progress in your career. If you have a flair for organisation and are a great communicator with second-to-none interpersonal skills, you should consider a course in this dynamic sector, as Administrators often have a chance at progressing within an organisation.

Administration Job Outlook

The graph shows historical and projected (to 2017) employment levels (thousands) for this occupation.

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS Labour Force Survey, DEEWR trend data to November 2014 and DEEWR projections to 2019. Estimates have been rounded.

Over the five years to November 2019, the number of job openings for Other Clerical & Administrative Workers is expected to be below average (between 5,001 and 10,000). Job openings can arise from employment growth and people leaving the occupation.

Employment for Other Clerical & Administrative Workers to November 2019 is expected to grow moderately. Employment in this medium sized occupation (15,600 in November 2012) declined in the past five years and remained steady in the long-term (ten years).

Administrative Assistant Salaries

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS EEBTUM survey August 2014 cat. no. 6310.0. Estimates have been rounded and consequently some discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.

Note: These figures are indicative and cannot be used to determine a particular wage rate.

Payscale.com lists the salary for Administration Assistants (with five years’ experience, working in Sydney) as between $44 000 and $57 000 per annum

Administrative Assistant Weekly Work Hours

The graph shows the average weekly hours (by gender and full-time and part-time) worked for this occupation, compared with all occupations. 

Administrative Assistants have a below average proportion of full-time jobs (64.9 per cent). For Other Clerical & Administrative Workers working full-time, average weekly hours are 35.3 (compared to 40.9 for all occupations) and earnings are average - in the sixth decile. Unemployment for Administrative Assistants is above average.

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS Labour Force Survey, annual average 2014.

Administrative Assistant Age Profile

 Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, annual average 2014.

Administrative Assistant Education Levels

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS Labour Force Survey, annual average 2014.

Stable Positions

According to a new study, ‘Administrative Assistant’ could continue to be the top job for women in 2020. The Labor Department projects the category will grow about 12% between 2010 and 2020, adding nearly 493,000 jobs during this decade.

What Administration Qualification Do You Need?

Certificate IV in Business Administration (specialising in Finance)

With a focus on financial skills, this is an all-round course that will prepare you to take on a variety of in-demand office administration roles.

Certificate IV in Business Administration (specialising in IT)

Learn database design, information system implementation, maintenance of business technology and transferrable office skills, as well as specialised information technology knowledge.

Certificate IV in Business Administration

This certificate offers a professional and diverse introductory experience to administration which will give you all the basic knowledge to perform top level functions in a business or office environment.

Certificate IV in Legal Services

This nationally recognised legal services course will train you to research legal information, produce legal documents and apply legal principles in various contexts.

Certificate III in Business Administration (Legal)

This course has been custom-designed by industry experts to introduce students to the legal system for legal secretarial, legal receptionist or support work.

Business (Medical Receptionist)

Developed for those aspiring to work as a medical receptionist, or who wish to update their professional skills, this course equips students with both general and specialised knowledge.

Why Study Administration through Open Colleges?

Open Colleges’ administration courses are delivered online, giving students the flexibility of organising their study around their life. You can enrol anytime of the year and study at your own pace.

Among other things, you'll learn how to develop and use complex spreadsheets and documents, how to write reports and organise meetings, calendars and diaries.

You’ll also learn skills such as how to administer projects, coordinate business resources, implement and monitor environmentally sustainable work practices and how to implement workplace information systems.

Your course includes comprehensive student support to help you throughout your study. Some of these diplomas and certificates allow you to graduate with a government-accredited, nationally recognised qualification that can boost your chances of employment.

Interview with an Administration Professional

In two sentences, tell us what a bit about your role in Administration.

work virtually from a home office servicing clients throughout Australia. I do all areas of administration such as document formatting, data entry, transcription and diary management. Basically everything a normal PA would do except for hard copy filing as I’m not on site.

What does an administration professional do on a day to day basis?

An administration professional is someone who works in the background to assist businesses with the running of their business. My services are very broad and are based on the individual needs of the businesses. One client may require the traditional personal assistant role such as diary management, email management, travel arrangements etc. Another client may need assistance with social media posting, website maintenance and document formatting.

What are the best parts of the job?

The best part of working in the administration field is you get to get your hands dirty – metaphorically speaking. I get to jump into the backend of a business and provide essential support to help the businesses grow and prosper. I do have my favourite type of tasks but what I love best about working with so many clients is that my work day is so varied and changes every hour. There is certainly no ‘clock watching’ involved.

What skills/attributes do potential Administration employees need to have?

Obviously the usual technical skills such as working with Microsoft packages, customer service and diary management. Working as a virtual administration professional means you need additional skills and programs to assist in closing the gap of physical location. Administration employees need to have a personality that is aligned with wanting to assist, wanting to help and getting great joy from seeing the business that they’re working for thrive.

What’re your favourite things about working in the administration industry?

My favourite thing is being able to do so many varied tasks in a day. To deal with so many different industries and in my case, to not be hamstrung by physical location. I can be working with a client in Victoria in the morning, Perth at lunch and Queensland in the afternoon. Being able to constantly learn new skills to better myself and in turn pass this onto clients. In my view an administration professional is an integral part of any businesses team.

Thanks, Emma, for sharing your story with Open Colleges.