Qualifications and Association membership pays

APA Director General Gareth Osborne has spoken, via the web, to a Canadian PA audience on the importance of professional qualifications; citing research that showed they could add tens of thousands of pounds to an employee's lifetime earnings.

 An independent study by CCPMO, commissioned by the major UK professional bodies, estimated increased lifetime economic benefit of holding professional qualifications to be highly significant. It also found that membership of a professional body would also result in increased additional earnings. In the case of a PA, the total could be in excess of £64,000 in additional income.

Osborne said: “Research highlighted the immense value added by professional qualifications – for individuals, employers and the wider economy. These qualifications have a multiplier effect as professionals use their knowledge and skills to maximise the learning and performance of the whole workforce. For PAs this means an increase in their own effectiveness (and productivity) and that of their Boss and their department."

He added: "A government's skills agenda cannot succeed without the contribution made by professional bodies and their qualified members. APA works hard to ensure that its qualifications are recognised as the must-have endorsement for a PA’s professional development. This, coupled with the availability of the Middlesex University PA Degree, developed with APA creates, a career pathway for PAs aspiring to be future business leaders."

APA