'Modern Day Assistant' talk show highlights role of administrative professionals

A talk show themed 'The Modern Day Assistant' highlights the role of administrative professionals in Vietnam

The talk show was organised by the Vietnam Economic Times magazine in collaboration with Tran & Tran Vietnam Training and Consulting Co., Ltd., the founder of Enlighten Books.

Working under the director and board of directors, assistants play a key role in businesses and organisations. They are not only responsible for developing and implementing strategic goals, but also for supervising and coordinating the plan implementation across departments.

They also connect employees with leaders while supporting operations through arranging, reporting, consulting, and even planning and contributing to business decisions and strategies. Therefore, the administrative profession is the lifeblood of every company.

In 1995, the National Secretaries Association decided to choose the last week in April as an official week to honour people working as assistants, secretaries, and administrative professionals. In 2020, the event was renamed Administrative Professionals Week. It aims to recognise the important contribution of administrative professionals to businesses in particular and the economy in general.

The administrative profession has undergone drastic changes amid the economic fluctuations post pandemic and the rapid development of technology, especially AI.

According to Gartner, Inc., an American technological research and consulting firm, 2 per cent of digital workers use a virtual employee assistant on a daily basis. This figure is forecast to reach 50 per cent in 2025.

According to Transparency Market Research, the intelligent virtual assistant market is predicted to reach a value of $35.1 billion by 2025 and nearly 51 billion by the end of 2030. The market is expected to register a compound annual growth rate of 33 per cent between 2020 and 2030.

According to the World Economic Forum, 50 per cent of businesses are accelerating automation, 80 per cent are expanding remote work models, and 84 per cent are accelerating digitalisation.

Many senior assistants say that their digital skills are lagging post-pandemic. They should keep up with the fast-paced development of technology in the new era, understanding new business and governance mindsets. Thus, they can help leaders optimise work performance, thereby contributing to the success of businesses.

At the conference, the Enlighten Books Bookshelf, dedicated to assistants, was co-founded by Tran Thi Thu Huong and Tran Thi Kieu Anh. The bookshelf aims to share knowledge, skills, and secrets of success in the administrative profession with the office assistant and administrative community in Vietnam, thereby improving expertise and enhancing the role of this profession.

The launch of the Enlighten Books Bookshelf aims to build the community of administrative professionals in Vietnam

As part of the Enlighten Books Bookshelf, the first book is "The Modern Day Assistant" written by Lucy Brazier, one of the world’s leading authorities on the administrative profession.

"Since I read the first pages of the book, I it illustrated my work and stories of coworkers and assistants around me. It is the reason why I and Kieu Anh want to promote 'The Modern Day Assistant' to reach more Vietnamese readers, especially those in the administrative profession," said Huong.

The Modern Day Assistant book is expected to benefit those working in the administrative profession in Vietnam

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