Professional EAs need professional qualifications

Here at Adam Fidler Academy we receive many enquiries asking: “Why would I do a qualification, as opposed to a stand-alone PA/EA training course?”   It’s a very good question, but one which we’re very clear about. 

If you want to gain professional status, gain even greater respect from your employer and your boss, increase your promotion prospects and earning potential, then being ‘qualified’ is the best way forward.

Now I can hear PAs and EAs the world over shouting, “I don’t need a qualification to do my job,” or saying, “Work experience is more important than a qualification.”  And, we agree with that, but in a competitive labour market, having a qualification is the icing on the cake that will set you apart from your peers.  In fact, it might be the difference between you being selected for a job over and above another candidate.   Work experience, combined with a formal qualification, can only enhance your prospects and confirm to your employer your dedication and commitment to your profession.  It’s also proven, the better qualified you are, the higher the salary you can command. 

Take, for example, the group pictured above – a mixture of Level 3 and Level 4 qualification students. They said, “We have the experience, can do the job, but want to prove it to others, and have the certification to validate that we are professionally qualified in our field.”  Now, there’s ambition for you!  Many of our students are already benefitting from the fruits of their hard work.  A new job title, a pay increase and greater responsibility… that doesn’t come with luck. It comes with dedication, getting qualified and showing your boss you have professional status and the ‘gold standard’.   

Many PAs and EAs will say they didn’t have the opportunity to go to university or get a degree, but our Level 4 qualification – which is broadly equivalent to the first year of a degree or a HNC – can be achieved in as little as six days, plus self-study.  It’s the easiest route to a Level 4 qualification, and that’s why we attract students from all over the world on this and our EA Diploma pathways.   

We’re a big supporter, here, of all things PA related.  Networking has its place, but while we continue to put awards above academia, socialising over scholarship and cocktails over certification, sadly the PA/EA industry and role will lack the professional status it really deserves.  

Professional qualifications, in our view, are the best way to enhance professional status. As our strapline states: credible, confident, qualified.  That’s an Adam Fidler Academy EA!    

Adam Fidler Academy is one of a few private colleges worldwide that offer bespoke and proper qualifications to EAs and PAs.  By ‘proper’ qualifications, we mean a qualification that’s actually on the Ofqual register, maps to a certain educational level and meets the standards set out by The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation in the UK. 

If you’d like to enhance your professional status by being professionally qualified, then we have a number of pathways for you, including our unrivalled Executive Assistant Diploma and our new Graduate EA programme.  For more details, see www.adamfidler.academy or email [email protected]