Learn Skills To Excel as an Administrative Professional
Administrative Support Specialist Staci Roseboro used to envy colleagues who had earned the Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence, or PACE.
She doesn’t anymore. Roseboro earned the certification earlier this year, and now she proudly displays a digital badge in her email signature to show off the achievement.
“I’m super proud of myself,” said Roseboro, who works at the African American Cultural Center at NC State. “I was familiar with PACE, and I was always kind of like, ‘Wow, I really would like to do that,’ but I didn’t have the opportunity in my other positions.”
University Human Resources is giving administrative professionals who work at NC State an opportunity to earn the certification as a part of its new Administrative Professionals Program. The training program equips administrative professionals at NC State with skills and knowledge to excel in their roles and advance in their careers.
Roseboro and 20 other NC State employees participated in the program’s inaugural class. They started the program in January and finished it in June.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that other admin professionals should not pass up,” Roseboro said. “I don’t think they’ll find a training that will compare to this, especially because part of this admin training is specific to NC State. It also provided a benefit that I didn’t anticipate, and that was connecting with other admins across the campus.”
How the Program Will Benefit Participants
The training program is the brainchild of Carina Lockley, a university program specialist who’s part of the Learning and Organizational Development team in UHR. She said she created the program because administrative professionals play a vital role at NC State but lacked an internal training program to help them improve their skills and develop new ones.
“A lot of administrative professionals feel stuck in their careers,” Lockley said. “They don’t receive any training, and some rarely hear words of encouragement like, ‘You’re doing a great job’ or, ‘Your position is needed.’ If you were to remove administrative professionals from offices, there would be chaos. They need to see they are needed and valued.”
Administrative professionals perform many tasks to ensure the smooth operation of offices across the university, including managing their supervisors’ schedules, coordinating meetings and writing correspondence. The new training program covers best practices for time management, communication, organization and more. Program participants can immediately apply the skills and knowledge they learn during the training program to their work, improving their productivity and effectiveness in their administrative roles.
To earn the Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence, participants must take an exam administered by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, a provider of training and resources for administrative professionals. The certification program consists of four learning modules: Interpersonal Communication, Task and Project Management, Computer and Internet Technology, and Management Skills. Part of NC State’s training program includes preparing for the exam.
Roseboro said learning about project management was her favorite part of the program.
I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that other admin professionals should not pass up.
Staci Roseboro
Administrative support specialist
“If I were at the beginning of my career, I would probably do more research into that field because I learned my skill set matches well with project management,” she said. “As an admin, I already do some project management. So that part of the training was interesting to me, and I geeked out going down the road of looking at what project management is all about.”
‘It Was a Lot of Hard Work and Studying’
Ryan Hutchinson, an administrative support specialist in the Department of Athletics, also was in the inaugural class. He said he participated in the training program because he thought it would be a great opportunity to advance his skill sets and learn new ones.
Hutchinson said part of his responsibilities is sending emails on various topics on behalf of his boss and to all employees in athletics. He said he has benefited from taking a communication class the program offers.
“It has definitely helped me to streamline my emails,” Hutchinson said. “If I request feedback, I’m getting it back much quicker and much more efficiently.”
Like Roseboro, Hutchinson is proud to have earned the Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence and has added a digital badge to his email signature.
“It was a lot of hard work and studying,” he said. “Why not showcase that?”
He said other administrative professionals at NC State should sign up for the training program.
“In the inaugural class, there were folks who have been administrative assistants for a year or so and people who had been admin assistants for 10, 15-plus years,” Hutchinson said. “Everybody seemed to have learned something new.”
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