Secretarial and related occupations

How to become a personal assistant and other secretaries

Official title: Personal assistants and other secretaries

Also called: Secretary, Pa-secretary, Secretary-pa, Club secretary, Farm secretary, Admin secretary, Group secretary, Branch secretary, County secretary, Secretary-typist, Virtual assistant, Private secretary

Personal assistants and other secretaries provide administrative and secretarial support to individuals, departmental or management teams within organisations.

Main tasks

Acts as a first point of contact for a manager or team with colleagues and people from outside organisations, fields telephone enquiries, takes and passes on messages
Arranges appointments, keeps business diary, organises travel arrangements, makes reservations and organises a variety of functions
Opens, sorts, distributes and files correspondence (in hard copy and electronic) and deals directly with routine correspondence
Uses appropriate software to produce correspondence, memoranda, reports, presentations and other documents from drafts, handwritten copy or by transcribing dictation
Arranges and attends meetings, takes minutes and prepares records of proceedings
Translates documents and liaises with overseas clients and suppliers

How to become one

There are no minimum academic requirements, although entry to professional secretarial courses typically requires GCSEs/S grades. NVQs/SVQs are available in Administration at levels 2, 3 and 4.

Pay · Outlook

Median full-time pay: £34,954 a year The middle half earn £28,565 to £43,903.
About 219,800 people work in this job now, and about 177,300 are projected by 2035. (-19.4%)

Questions people ask

How do I become a personal assistant and other secretaries?

There are no minimum academic requirements, although entry to professional secretarial courses typically requires GCSEs/S grades. NVQs/SVQs are available in Administration at levels 2, 3 and 4.

How much does a personal assistant and other secretaries earn in the UK?

Median full-time pay is £34,954 a year (Office for National Statistics). The middle half earn £28,565 to £43,903.

Is a personal assistant and other secretaries a growing career in the UK?

Employment is projected to fall 19% by 2035, from about 219,800 to about 177,300 people (Department for Education).

Do you need a degree to become a personal assistant and other secretaries?

Not always. 33% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Sources

Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03

Updated 2026-10-03