Secretaries acquire their skills in various ways. Many temporary help agencies provide formal training in computer and office skills. Specialized training programs are available for students planning to become medical or legal secretaries or administrative technology specialists. This designation is recognized by many employers as the mark of excellence for seniorlevel office professionals. Legal Secretaries International confers the designation, Board Certified Civil Trial Legal Secretary, in specialized areas such as litigation and probate, to those who have 5 years of law-related experience and who pass the examination.
Secretaries generally advance to a more responsible secretarial position by promotion.
Qualified secretaries who broaden their knowledge of the company's operations and enhance their skills may be promoted to other positions such as senior or executive secretary, clerical supervisor, or office manager. Secretaries with word processing experience can advance to jobs as word processing trainers, supervisors, or managers within their own firms or in a secretarial or word processing service bureau. Their experience as a secretary can lead to jobs such as instructor or sales representative with manufacturers of software or computer equipment. With additional training, many legal secretaries become paralegals. Job Outlook Job openings should be plentiful, especially for well qualified and experienced secretaries, primarily due to the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave this very large occupation for other reasons each year.