General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science

Types of Degrees General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general administrative assistant and secretarial science graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	2,305
Associate Degree	1,858
Undergraduate Certificate	1,513
Bachelor’s Degree	71

What General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, general administrative assistant and secretarial science majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Majors

General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Majors

When studying general administrative assistant and secretarial science, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Abilities for General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Majors

A major in general administrative assistant and secretarial science will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science?

The major attracts more women than men. About 83% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general administrative assistant and secretarial science majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1
Black or African American	8
Hispanic or Latino	48
White	11
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science

Some degrees associated with general administrative assistant and secretarial science may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for general administrative assistant and secretarial science careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	37.8%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	4.1%
Some College Courses	15.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	27.5%
Bachelor’s Degree	11.3%
Master’s Degree	0.8%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	1.6%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	1.3%

Online General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	380	85
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	483	108
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to General Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general administrative assistant and secretarial science.

Major	Number of Grads
Customer Service Support/Call Center/Teleservice Operation	5,055
Business & Office Technology	1,874
General Office Occupations and Clerical Services	1,650
Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary	1,495
Other Business Operations Support and Secretarial Services	342
Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations	185
Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician	175
Receptionist	81

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.