Only days to go to Office* 2012

APA will again be at Office* this year to meet existing PA members and recruit new ones; so please make sure you visit us on stand 4001 and meet the team and your peers. This year APA might even be making a very special announcement about its continuing growth and success around the world.

APA

Pressure mounting on Osborne (the other one)

There was further bad news for Chancellor George Osborne as APA joined the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in today warning him that it believed the UK economy would shrink by 0.4% in 2012 against government forecasts.

Not only that but APA believes 2013 figures are also overstated and growth is more likely to be around 1.2% rather than the government forecast of 1.9%. The Eurozone crisis (now focused on Spain) and a sharp rise in food and oil prices pose the greatest threat.

APA’s Gareth Osborne said: “The austerity plan (known as Plan A) is destined to fail while prices are rising so steeply and are outside the control of government. However, Plan B (the spend, spend, spend solution) is even less likely to succeed. We support an externally funded recovery led by massive capital investment by or through penalty on the Banks..

However, APA strongly backs planned growth measures such as creating a business bank and Bank of England support for small business borrowing but believes the banks should still do more to fund the recovery from recession which they so successfully fuelled.

APA

Every PA is a Manager

I
t is regularly argued that most people are promoted to be managers not trained and qualified for the job – APA offers a solution for PAs who find themselves increasingly responsible for managing the assets of the organisation and who deserve best practice to help them excel.

APA starts from the premise that every PAs is a manager; whether it simply be a junior PA  managing the diary, travel or emails, every PA manages the organisation’s most valuable resource – its business leader – and more importantly the effective use of that person’s time. Every APA course embraces this belief and trains PAs in the skills necessary to be great managers.

The highly popular ‘PA as a Manager’ programme is a dedicated APA course for those PAs who have delegated authority to oversee people, money and time and want to learn from others PAs how to succeed in the role. It provides a short, sharp injection of knowledge designed to understand who, what, when, where, why and how to manage.

APA

Pictured (L-R) are: Marie-Helene Bancquart (who flew in from Switzerland for the course) and Bethany Fovargue.

About the course Marie-Helene said: “Many thanks for the course today, it gives us very good tools and I am sure I will from now on use them regularly!”

Bethany Fovargue said: Another “thank you” for your help, support and insight on yesterday’s training course; it was very valuable and I am pleased to have been able to attend."

Qualifications boom this autumn

APA is preparing itself for the busiest training season ever as autumn approaches; it has major contracts running with two government departments, a national executive agency and 3 major corporates all from diverse and challenging sectors. And these are in addition to its regular qualification programmes running at locations across the UK and Europe.

The APA Diploma (DipPA) is continuing to attract a high level of enrolments in the UK; with many autumn courses already full or having only a few places remaining. This is also true in Scandinavia and Germany where the Diploma is equally the ‘must complete’ qualification for PAs.

Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA said: “The Diploma is the most rewarding programme for all experienced, professional PAs, it embraces new tools and techniques to help maximise the effectiveness of their Boss and explores some exceptionally valuable management and leadership skills to help elevate the PAs involvement in the organisation.”

With more and more PAs playing an important role in Project Management the Diploma equips them for the toughest challenge – not just the staff Christmas Party.

APA

Pictured are recent Diploma takers (L-R): Caroline Date, Alison Grayley, Watcharin (Apple) Sharpe, Alison McMurtrie and Lucy Mott (who flew in from Singapore to attend the course). Missing is Jacqui Deveney. All are seen here with Debs Eden (far right) who attended as an observer.

No longer a single glass ceiling for working women

The concept of a single glass ceiling is an outdated model and no longer reflects the realities of modern working life for women, according to the results of a poll released by Ernst & Young. The survey of UK working women between the ages of 18 - 60, revealed that two thirds believe they faced multiple barriers throughout their careers, rather than just a single ceiling on entry to the boardroom.

Based on the results, Ernst & Young has identified four key barriers to career progression for today’s working women. These barriers are: age, lack of role models, motherhood, and qualifications and experience.

The professional services firm says that the barriers aren’t chronological and can be experienced at anytime; often several at once. While some aren’t exclusive to women, it believes it is clear from the research that employers need to provide better support to help women overcome them.

APA strongly opposes gender stereotypes and arcane working prejudices and actively encourages the enforcement of the Equal Pay Act (1970); not yet realised and perhaps the oldest remaining form of discrimination in the UK workplace.

Ernst & Young conclude: "British business is losing its best and brightest female talent from the pipeline before they have even had a chance to smash the glass ceiling. Professional women clearly experience it; that’s what they have told us.”

APA

Small business owners rely on their partners for support

According to research by Direct Line for Business (DL4B), more than half (51 per cent) of small business owners and managers rely on spouses and partners to help run their company. The research revealed that 46 per cent of small business owners and key decision makers rely on their partners to carry out general business administration while one in five (19 per cent) employ their partner as a receptionist.

In fact more than one in seven (14 per cent) trust their partners to look after legal and accounting services. A further 8 per cent look to their partners to carry out sales, marketing and new business generation responsibilities.They suggest their partners work on average two days a week (with one in four working three or more days a week), nearly a third (31 per cent) do not pay their partner any money at all.

Gareth Osborne said: “Small businesses are crucial in re-energising the UK economy. Partners have always been the unpaid directors and managers and this is where HMRC needs to be enormously more creative in allowing tax breaks to apply. In the current climate unpaid workers (of any type) are omitted from company insurance cover and therefore at risk should accidents occur.

"It is clear that small trade businesses are seeking voluntary help from their partners to avoid high legal, secretarial or IT support fees but it is vital that these businesses ensure their partners are adequately covered in event of an accident.”

The research interestingly showed that a small trade business employing less than five people typically has an average annual turnover of around £124,000. This makes it hard to sustain average UK salaries and national minimum wage.

APA

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

Cardiff was the port of call for the ‘PA Professional’ – Module 1 of the PA Diploma (DipPA) –yesterday and delegates joined Gareth Osborne for the full day programme at the Park Plaza hotel in the city centre.

Gareth said: “Again we had a great group of enthusiastic and energetic PAs from diverse backgrounds all keen to share experience and learn a host of new tools and techniques aimed at making them more aware of the importance of the role and elevate the effectiveness of their support for their boss. Their good humour and professionalism made it a hugely enjoyable day and all confirmed that they would take away valuable knowledge to enhance their PA role. Lunch was pretty good as well!”

Helen Jones MAPA said: “Dear APA, I’d like to thank you very much for the course you delivered yesterday in Cardiff. It was incredibly insightful and revealing; it has really opened my eyes and has given me added confidence. I have also, this morning, introduced the RYGB tool to my manager and colleagues and I am currently organising the next team meeting where I will be presenting this!”

APA would like thank South Wales Chamber; especially Rhiannon Hendry, for their support in promoting the programme.

APA

Pictured (L-R) are: Deborah Stewart, Bethan Constable, Helen Jones and Michaela Benjamin

Qualification developments

Last week saw APA directors call a meeting of elite and long standing Members to discuss professional qualifications and their future development. The meeting was generously hosted by Tina Skilton of the RAF Benevolent Fund in Portland Place, London and the debate was chaired jointly by APA Directors Emma Kernan-Staines and Laura Richardson.

The discussion led to some positive outcomes and a series of new opportunities; more on this as plans evolve.

APA

Pictured (L:R) back row are: Vicky Fryer, Laura Richardson, Heather Senu, Inta Batsman, Aisling O’Meara and Katie Manning. On the front row are: Joan May, Tina Skilton, Emma Kernan-Staines and Joanne O’Rourke.

Eviva España

This week has seen the first ever delivery of the APA Diploma (Module 1/PA Professional) in Spain and our resident hispanophile, Maggie Mooney, led an impressive group of experienced Spanish PAs through their paces with great success.

Maggie is a near fluent Spanish speaker but the course was presented in English. with everyone comfortable the international business language. The PAs who all worked for British companies with subsidiaries in and around the Andalucía region gathered at a Marbella hotel in glorious weather to learn about new tools and techniques for PAs and how to maximise the effectiveness of their support for their Boss.

APA’s southern Europe region is growing steadily with members joining from across Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Maggie said: “This was a great course, relaxed, friendly and very creative. Every one of the companies had paid for their PA to stay overnight before the training and it gave us all an opportunity to get to know each other, laugh and really share opinions about the role of a PA. It made training the next day so much more effective. If only UK employers would do the same.”

For more details of APA professional training and qualification programmes please go to the website or email: training@paprofessional.com .

APA

 
Attendees included (L-R): Alandra Moreno, Lali Guzman, Sonora Vasquez, Palmera Rios, Garbine Ortiz and Felicia Reyes