Administrative Assistants Better Equipped for their Duties

Administrative Assistants (AAs) at the University of Buea have completed a workshop aimed at building capacity and enhancing their performance in the delivery of their services. For 4 days, participants drawn from all services and departments of the University were treated to various presentations which bordered on effective communication, hospitality, conflict management, career profiles, amongst a host of other very pertinent topics.

 

 

At the opening ceremony, and on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, the Registrar of the University of Buea Professor Ernest Molua, underscored the imperativeness of the workshop in an era where machines and technology are fast taking over human tasks. He encouraged AAs to take active participation in the workshop for its impact to be felt in due course.

 

 

 

REACTIONS

The University of Buea has a total of 167 Administrative Assistants who were mostly recruited based on their certificates and not on the profession as AAs. We have received complaints from bosses that some of these AAs do not actually perform their duties as they ought to. We therefore found it imperative that a workshop like this be organized to familiarize and upgrade their knowledge on what it actually means to be an AA. The content of this workshop has been so suitable for its purpose. All of these in a bid to increase their competence at their various work stations. Participants will be awarded certificates of participation.

 

 

 

This workshop was very necessary and timely given the fact that for a longtime, the University has been recruiting staff without any collective form of capacity building, which is very necessary for equipping the staff in their functions as Administrative assistants. It is in this light that the Administrative Affairs department of the University decided to drill the AAs, who are the main actors at the different services of the university, to be able to perform their functions and understand their responsibilities as AAs, as well as how they are supposed to handle administrative information and secrets. The workshop will go a long way to improve of the skills of administrative assistants in the University of Buea. The participants were quite elated and feedback was more than encouraging. They appreciated the careful choice of topics. We hope that they will put all that they have learnt into practice.

Ayuk Justine Etah, PhD

Lecturer, Head of Administrative Division
Resource Person

We were merely responding to the call some bosses to upgrade the skills of administrative assistants especially to meet the demands of the new technology and new ways of performing certain functions. We are grateful to the Vice-Chancellor for making this possible by providing all we needed for the success of this event. We hope to get positive feedback from the bosses on the performance of their AAs in the days ahead.

 

 

 

 

We acknowledge that we have been lacking in so many aspects as AAs. This workshop will definitely help us improve on our work, thereby projecting the image of the university so that even the community can feel the impact of what we are doing in the institution.

 

 

 

 

This workshop is very necessary for AAs who were not trained before their recruitment. I hope that lessons learnt will go a great deal to improve on their working conditions and output. We urge the University to organize such workshops for the other colleges of non-teaching staff on campus.

 

 

The workshop was so enriching. We have acquired many skills. We have been taught how to interact with our fellow colleagues and students that have been placed under our care. We also gained knowledge on how to collaborate and function well with our bosses and with the security guards to ensure our own safety on campus, as well as the channels and procedures on how to table our problems to the administration. We hope these workshops are frequent.

 

 

 

This workshop will definitely change the way I work, thereby increasing my output and productivity. I enjoyed the presentation on dealing my attitude and that of others. The presentation on communication cut across all other domains. We have been able to meet our colleagues of other services and departments. The question and answer sessions and group work made us understand that our challenges as administrative assistants are uniform across the board.

 

 

 

Administrative Assistants at the University of Buea have resolved to work hand in glove with the administration of the University to ensure a smooth functioning of the institution. After this workshop, we are positive that the University of Buea will become more than ever before, the ‘Place to Be”

Adolph Kwolo Matuke AA, Higher Technical Teacher’s Training College, UB, Kumba