
An Executive Assistant with a Federal Diploma of Higher Education supports the Executive Board or upper management in their management work and takes on demanding communication, information and administrative tasks. They perform tasks independently in the areas of marketing, human resources, PR and corporate communication and are responsible for organizing meetings and projects.
As the management assistant training program is usually part-time,time budget can be tight and free time often has to be sacrificed.
The qualification is not yet very well known among employers, although the training is well established and is becoming increasingly popular.However, management assistants are in high demand and the skills acquired are clearly defined for everyone by the responsible body of the Swiss Commercial Association.
The position of management assistant requires flexibility, interpersonal skills, organizational and leadership talent, a high degree of service orientation and good language skills.The requests they receive are very varied and often need to be dealt with quickly. Working hours can be irregular. The workload and working hours depend heavily on the management style and the demands of the supervisor. You have to be familiar with many areas of business administration and these various topics are also covered in the training.
As the management assistant training program is not modular, the grades and performance records acquired during the training are not credited at the end, but all the required skills are tested in the annual federal final examination lasting more than eight hours.The pressure of the written and oral exams is correspondingly high, but you are specifically prepared for them during your training.
However, without additional qualifications after training as a management assistant, career progress is limited.There are only limited opportunities for promotion if no further qualifications follow.
Graduates generally play an important coordinating and mediating role between superiors, employees and customers/suppliers/business partners. They are an important point of contact for managers and employees in a kind of hub function in various sectors. They work in a team within a company, an organization or a public administration.