Administrative assistant to office clerk
An administrative assistant already meets 53% of what the office clerk role asks for. The move turns on 12 required skills not yet in the profile.
54.3/ 100
1 How much of what an office clerk is expected to do is already part of an administrative assistant’s work. Directional: the figure for the reverse move differs, because moving into a speciality is not the same problem as moving out of one. 2 Every skill the office clerk role is recorded as needing, required and optional together. What these numbers mean.
Why this move works
An office clerk role treats 14 of its required skills as things an administrative assistant already does. You would walk in with these on day one.
- company policies
- deliver correspondence
- disseminate internal communications
- disseminate messages to people
- file documents
- fill out forms
What stands in the way is 12 required skills the profile does not yet cover. Table 3 groups them; Table 4 says which to take first.
Table 2 · What you already bring
Of the 25 skills that carry over, these are the ones fewest other occupations ask for. An office clerk role needs them, and most people applying for one will not have them already. This is the part of an administrative assistant background worth leading with.
- already held maintain inventory of office supplies information skills
- already held monitor staff absences information skills
- already held use personal organization software working with computers
- already held organise facilities for office personnel management skills
- already held transcription methods arts and humanities
- already held draft corporate emails communication, collaboration and creativity
All 25 carried skills, including the 14 the office clerk role treats as required.
Table 3 · What you may need to learn
The 23 missing skills fall into 8 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, numbered in the order worth working in. Areas carrying the most required skills come first, and inside each one the required skills sit above the optional ones. Nothing here is a verdict on you: it is a list of what this particular job asks for that your current one does not.
- still to learn align content with form required
- still to learn apply grammar and spelling rules required
- still to learn communicate by telephone required
- still to learn communicate with customers required
- still to learn use different communication channels required
- optional, not held communicate with customer service department optional
- still to learn facilitate access to information required
- still to learn maintain correspondence records required
- still to learn process data required
- optional, not held manage digital archives optional
- optional, not held keep records of customer interaction optional
- optional, not held translate keywords into full texts optional
- still to learn route correspondence to business departments required
- still to learn handle delivered packages required
- optional, not held perform cleaning duties optional
- still to learn prepare correspondence for customers required
- optional, not held process customer orders optional
- optional, not held use free typing techniques optional
- still to learn information confidentiality required
- optional, not held digitise documents optional
- optional, not held use software for data preservation optional
2 further areas in the appendix
Table 4 · Where to start
The 3 entries an office clerk role is least likely to hire without. The ordering is computed from the skill data, not from what pays.
- 01 route correspondence to business departments practise this
- 02 facilitate access to information practise this
- 03 information confidentiality study this
Each entry opens a course search for that skill. Career Overlap earns nothing from these links.
Appendix · The rest of the record
All 25 skills that carry over
- already held company policies knowledge
- already held deliver correspondence skill
- already held disseminate internal communications skill
- already held disseminate messages to people skill
- already held file documents skill
- already held fill out forms skill
- already held handle mail skill
- already held manage digital documents skill
- already held organise business documents skill
- already held organise facilities for office personnel skill
- already held perform office routine activities skill
- already held process commissioned instructions skill
- already held use office systems skill
- already held use spreadsheets software skill
- already held accounting techniques knowledge
- already held draft corporate emails skill
- already held ensure proper document management skill
- already held issue sales invoices skill
- already held maintain internal communication systems skill
- already held maintain inventory of office supplies skill
- already held monitor staff absences skill
- already held respect data protection principles skill
- already held transcription methods knowledge
- already held use microsoft office skill
- already held use personal organization software skill
The 2 learning areas not shown above
- optional, not held serve beverages optional
- optional, not held document sharing procedures optional
11 supplementary skills, helpful but not required
- optional, not held communicate with customer service department optional
- optional, not held manage digital archives optional
- optional, not held serve beverages optional
- optional, not held digitise documents optional
- optional, not held document sharing procedures optional
- optional, not held keep records of customer interaction optional
- optional, not held perform cleaning duties optional
- optional, not held process customer orders optional
- optional, not held translate keywords into full texts optional
- optional, not held use free typing techniques optional
- optional, not held use software for data preservation optional
16 held skills the office clerk role does not ask for
- not needed by the target role business communication knowledge
- not needed by the target role coordinate events skill
- not needed by the target role create import-export commercial documentation skill
- not needed by the target role disseminate general corporate information skill
- not needed by the target role fix meetings skill
- not needed by the target role handle petty cash skill
- not needed by the target role keep task records skill
- not needed by the target role liaise with managers skill
- not needed by the target role maintain statutory books skill
- not needed by the target role manage personnel agenda skill
- not needed by the target role organise travel arrangements for staff skill
- not needed by the target role perform business research skill
- not needed by the target role plan schedule skill
- not needed by the target role prepare presentation material skill
- not needed by the target role provide customer follow-up services skill
- not needed by the target role speak different languages skill
2 gaps that are knowledge rather than practice
Knowledge gaps usually close through study. Practical skill gaps usually need something you can point at.
- still to learn information confidentiality required
- optional, not held document sharing procedures optional
Other moves recorded from administrative assistant
- secretary 71% covered · moderate
- management assistant 50% covered · moderate
- executive assistant 49% covered · substantial
- foreign language correspondence clerk 44% covered · moderate
- file clerk 40% covered · substantial
- receptionist 33% covered · substantial
- supply chain assistant 32% covered · substantial
- billing clerk 29% covered · substantial
Common questions about this move
Can an administrative assistant become an office clerk?
Yes, and it is a moderate move. An administrative assistant already covers 53% of what an office clerk is expected to do: 25 skills carry over, 14 of which the office clerk role treats as required.
What skills does an administrative assistant need to become an office clerk?
12 required skills are missing, plus 11 optional ones. They fall into 8 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, led by communication, collaboration and creativity. The single most important is route correspondence to business departments.
How hard is the move from administrative assistant to office clerk?
Its learning distance is 54.3 out of 100, which is the moderate band. That accounts for both how much is missing and how specialised those skills are.
How this record was compiled
Both occupations are taken from ESCO, which lists the skills and knowledge each occupation is expected to have and marks every one required or optional. Nothing here is a prediction about hiring, and nothing here knows that a particular employer wants a particular certificate. Treat Table 3 as a starting point for your own research rather than a syllabus. The full method states what these figures can and cannot tell you.