Image by Vitaly Gariev, Unsplash.
As we will soon celebrate Secretaries Day on the first Wednesday of September, it is worth taking a moment to consider how much administrative professionals do and appreciate specifically the discernment and communication skills their work requires. A carefully worded email can prevent confusion, and a well-prepared agenda can keep a meeting focused. Accurate minutes ensure that decisions do not disappear once everyone leaves the room (the whole point of having the meeting in the first place!).
The Communication Lab at the Stellenbosch University Language Centre offers two certificate of competence short courses that support different stages of this professional development journey: Effective office communication and documentation and Communication par excellence.
Finding your feet – or sharpening established skills
Effective office communication and documentation provides an accessible starting point for people who are new to office administration or who work in English without speaking it as a first language. It covers the practical communication tasks that form part of everyday administrative work, including writing concise and informative emails, compiling professional agendas, recording meetings and drafting effective minutes.
Participants also develop strategies for handling telephone conversations, queries, complaints and difficult situations. Meeting procedures, time management, goal setting, teamwork and the different responsibilities involved in organising and documenting meetings all form part of the course.
Although the course is positioned as an entry-level offering, experienced administrators also have much to gain from it. Habits develop quickly in a busy office, and there is seldom time to stand back and assess whether established ways of working are still effective. The course gives more experienced participants an opportunity to refine their processes, revisit the principles behind good administrative communication and become more deliberate about how they respond to the people and situations they encounter.
This makes the course useful both for someone who is still building confidence and for an administrator who already knows the job well but wants to perform it with greater consistency and professionalism. Managers looking for a meaningful way to invest in the administrative staff who support their teams may also find it a practical development opportunity. Applications close on 10 September for the last offering for the year.
Taking workplace communication further
Once the foundations of office communication and documentation are in place, Communication par excellence offers a natural next step.
The course shifts the emphasis towards the finer choices that shape effective professional communication in English. Participants examine tone and formality, sentence construction, clarity of purpose, audience needs and the writing process. They also have opportunities to produce a range of clear, concise and professional texts while developing greater confidence in spoken communication.
This course is particularly relevant to people who write as part of their work every day, but whose studies or training did not focus primarily on language. It helps participants move beyond simply producing a correct email, letter or document to thinking more carefully about how the message will be received and what it needs to achieve.
For an office administrator, that development can make a visible difference. The role often involves communicating on behalf of a manager, department or organisation. Each message therefore contributes, in a small but important way, to how professional, responsive and trustworthy the organisation appears.
Two courses, one development path
Both courses combine presenter-led live sessions with self-directed online learning and assessed activities. Participants who meet the attendance requirements and successfully complete the assignments receive a Stellenbosch University certificate of competence. Effective office communication and documentation also includes a contact session in Stellenbosch, while Communication par excellence is presented online. Places are limited to support participation and meaningful feedback.
Participants who enrol for both courses receive a discount on the second course, making it possible to approach them as a connected professional development path: first strengthening the systems and documentation that keep an office running, and then concentrating more closely on confident, purposeful workplace communication.
Current course dates, fees and application deadlines are available on the individual course pages:
For enquiries, contact Comms Lab coordinator Michelle Pieters at az.ca.nus@pellehcim or 021 808 2812.
