The office skill that look great on your CV

DURING the long university holidays, most students spend at least some time working to get their bank balances back into the black. With so many students flooding the employment market at the end of term, it can be a scramble, but in administration and office support you are almost guaranteed work - providing you can offer employers the right skills.

If you don't want to be stuck doing datainputting, it is an excellent idea to get some secretarial skills. These can also help you find temporary work in your gap year or, for school leavers, can help to get your foot in the door of your dream organisation.

What's on offer?

Numerous colleges across London offer office-skills courses. Some allow you to pick and choose modules from a full secretarial or IT programme, while on others you can learn individual skills or software packages.

You will be able to choose whether to study full- or part-time, during the day or in the evenings. The courses should fully prepare you for life in an office, so you will know what to expect from the work environment, and will also feel confident enough to perform professionally when you're thrown in at the deep end.

Why bother?

"Academic qualifications are important, but you also need skills you can apply in a professional and commercial environment," says Dawn Williams, an assignment co-ordinator at Office Angels. "Ideally we prefer candidates to be proficient in the MS Office package, with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and keyboard skills."

Powerpoint and keyboard skills.Most students will know how to do threeor four functions on, say, Word. But facedwith a complicated mail-merge, they dont know where to start, says Judith Kark of St Jamess and Lucie Clayton College,

which runs a number of office-skills programmes for school- leavers and gap year students. If that's you, then consider fleshing out your basic knowledge with some proper training.

Touch-typing takes time and patience to master, but once you're up to 45 words per minute, you'll be able to prepare letters and documents quickly and with confidence and should be able to get onto the books of most high-street recruitment agencies.

An in-depth knowledge of Word is essential for any general administrative work, while the spreadsheet package Excel is also widely used, particularly in the finance industry. Powerpoint will help you put together professional presentations useful for anyone thinking about a career in marketing or PR.

Shorthand skills too far from being outdated - can set you up for higher-level and better-paid secretarial jobs, such as executive PA positions (expect to earn pounds 9-pounds 10 per hour). Don't forget, these skills can also benefit your university or college work. Shorthand is a real advantage when taking lecture notes, and a slick Powerpoint presentation will always impress your seminar group.

How much?

Most courses are reasonably priced, and some are free or have reduced fees for those under 19 years old in fulltime education and those on benefits. If you don't qualify for help, you may be able to get a careerdevelopment loan (CDL) to cover up to 80 per cent of your course fees. The important thing to establish before shelling out any cash is that the course meets your needs.

The chances are you'll get a return on your investment pretty quickly when those office assignments start flooding in.

LINKS For information on career-development loans (CDL), visit www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/cdl/ or call 0800 585 505.

Visit www.londoncolleges.com for links to all London's adult education colleges Pitman runs short keyboarding and shorthand courses, see www.pitman-training.com St James's and Lucie Clayton College: www.sjlc.co.uk

My story

Clemmie Dodwell, 19, from Hertford did a gap-year course at St James's and Lucie Clayton College last summer. She starts a degree in English and Italian at the University of Edinburgh next month.

"I finished my A-levels last July, and wanted to temp because I was going travelling and needed to save up - but I needed to get some secretarial skills first. The course I took was for eight weeks and we did all the basic computer packages - Word, Excel, Powerpoint as well as the internet and the email package Outlook. When you've done a course, and you go into an office for the first time, you don't feel out of your depth. So when people are giving you loads of work, you don't get too stressed because you're keeping up with everything.

Now, back from travelling, I'm temping again as an office assistant and I'm using what I learned. I am planning to use it to get part-time office work when I go to uni as well. I'm thinking about a career in PR, so the presentation packages I've learned will be useful. But you are expected to have a good knowledge of computers no matter what industry you go into - so wherever I go, it'll help me.

Other strengths that count

Languages If you are fluent in more than one language, there are plenty of options open to you in the service industries and business. Office appointments requiring languages often pay higher rates. Bilingual temps, for example, can earn pounds 10-12 per hour (compared to pounds 6.50 per hour for basic admin jobs).

Silver service With booming restaurant and events industries, there is no shortage of waiting jobs in London. Even without experience, it is possible to get occasional shifts for events requiring large numbers of service staff through high-street recruitment agencies. If you're a clumsy type, there are plenty of backroom jobs going in the capital's kitchens that don't require any experience and pay around pounds 4.50 per hour.

Driving licence If you've got an ordinary driving licence, getting a job as a light-van driver isn't difficult. High-street recruitment agencies often offer such appointments, and pay varies according to region and client.

Alternatively, valet car-parking could be an option, at around pounds 6 per hour.

Good telephone voice It may not be all glamour, but using your best voice for work in a call centre can be lucrative.

With potential earnings of pounds 8-12 per hour, depending on the shift, call-centre work is a good stopgap between jobs or in the holidays.

Pint-pulling If you've been training all term in the union bar (serving, that is), you won't find it hard getting bar work in London during your breaks. Expect to earn around pounds 5 per hour.

People skills People with excellent communication skills and experience dealing with the public are always in demand in client- facing jobs in retail and the service industries. Retail staff can earn pounds 5-pounds 12 per hour in the capital.

High boredom threshold Picking, packing and other industrial jobs pay between pounds 5 and pounds 6.50 an hour. Basic warehouse work doesn't require experience, unlike higher-paid jobs in stock control.

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