Occupation
Administrative assistant
Administrative assistants keep an office or team running: handling correspondence, maintaining files and databases, arranging meetings and travel, and preparing the documents other people depend on. The role is the practical backbone of most public-sector and corporate offices.
Also known as: Administrative officer · Admin assistant · Office assistant · Secretary
Occupation content
Part of Government, policy and administration
What the work involves
- Draft, format, and proofread letters, reports, and internal documents.
- Maintain filing systems, databases, and shared document libraries.
- Schedule meetings, book rooms and travel, and circulate agendas and papers.
- Screen incoming calls, mail, and email and route them to the right person.
- Process expense claims, invoices, and routine purchasing paperwork.
- Take minutes and follow up on the actions recorded in them.
How people commonly enter
- A secondary school qualification plus an office administration certificate or diploma.
- Direct entry with employer training, often after clerical or reception experience.
- A college business administration program with an office placement.
- Temporary or agency placements leading to a permanent administrative post.
Typical training: Certificate or college diploma
Licensing: Not typically licensed
Typical work context
Desk based · Team based · Predictable routine · Hybrid office
Related interests
Conventional (organizing) · Social (helping)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
- Data checking and clerical accuracy
- Typing and keyboard skills
- Error detection
- Planning and scheduling exercises
- Written communication
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Government, policy and administration.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — occupation search: administrative assistant · United States
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- UK National Careers Service — Explore careers · United Kingdom
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- Canada Job Bank — Search job profiles (search: administrative assistant) · Canada
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Government, policy and administration in Canada, not a figure for Administrative assistant. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Government, policy and administration family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Government, policy and administration: education pathways
Some roles in Government, policy and administration may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Government, policy and administration: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Administrative assistant”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)