Jobs at this level often involve more demanding or specialist business or administration work.
With experience, you might be responsible for the smooth running of a team of staff and for organising training and development for your team members.
Example jobs
Senior administrator
Performing responsible and high-level administrative tasks.
Medical secretary
Providing both clerical and administrative support to health professionals, sending letters to patients, ordering medical supplies, booking venues for staff training.
Personal assistant
Providing administrative support to a manager or a team.
Office supervisor
Has more responsibility, perhaps for a particular area of work or leading a team of people.
Trainer
Often work within the human resources (HR) department to organise and run staff training and development activities.
Case study
The best advice I can give if you are thinking of going into business admin is to try and get some work experience in an office environment...
Lawiza Arain, PA to the head of marketing and communications at a university
Things you need to know
Typical working conditions
- Work is usually office-based and is often busy and fast-paced.
- You will generally work 35–40 hours per week, Monday to Friday.
- You might work in a specialised area of business, such as training, HR or finance.
- You might be responsible for leading a team and may be expected to work additional hours at busy times.
Qualifications needed
You can enter jobs at this level either with experience or with qualifications such as AS/A levels in business studies, economics and/or applied business (single or double award), BTEC Level 3 National qualifications in business or OCR National qualifications in business at Levels 2 and 3. It would be good experience to take part in a programme such as Young Enterprise at school or college.
Career path
Employers may offer in-house training schemes and advanced/higher apprenticeships to Level 3 or 4. For example, with experience you could progress from a clerical or admin assistant role to a job managing other staff such as office manager or administration team leader. Alternatively, you could choose to develop your experience and specialise in job roles such as personal assistant (PA) or business development executive.
Useful links
Pearson is not responsible for content on external websites.
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators
Young Enterprise
UK charity working to empower young people to harness their personal and business skills