Refreshing admin/pc skills ready to go back to work? Best course?

[millionaireshortie]

Not sure if this should be in chat but I'm looking to get back into an office role after taking 5 years out with young children. I use my laptop a lot for personal use so am familiar but appreciate my MS skills will be lacking.

What would be a good course to do to get my skills bang up to date and which will look favourable on a CV so employers aren't put off by my time out? Have any of you done this? Was it necessary? Any regrets?

I'm looking to get into something like NHS admin, HR admin assistant, property admin etc

Bumping for you as I am looking to return to work later this year after nearly five years as a SAHM so I’d be interested too

This might be a good start - have been thinking about doing it myself.

www.ecdluk.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwkoDmBRCcARIsAG3xzl9dGHlMt-zfZRjdR8TqvgnEoum1awPNhrfKEkk0ODNEe1oWHFgZeNIaAi5DEALw_wcB

@mebeforeyou good luck with it! It's a scary prospect isn't it. Let's hope we find what we're looking for! What were you doing before? What are you aiming to get into?

@Se7ven11 thanks for this - looks perfect!

Thanks for this thread, also interested!

Anyone done the course who can tell me a bit about it please?

@millionaireshortie

Yes, it’s scary the thought of looking for a job! I’m concerned employers will disregard my CV once they’ve seen the 5-year gap, but my DH does some recruitment as part of his job and says his organisation changed their philosophy to ‘employ for attitude rather than just experience,’ so I’m hoping there are other companies out there who have a similar outlook!

I worked in supply chain for a multi-national company but I’m not interested in returning to that, as the hours were often long and prospects nil. I’m not sure what I want to do - it really has to fit in with being able to collect our DC from after-school club or a childminder by 5.30-6pm really as DH works very long hours. He works in education so he suggested a job in a school so that we get to spend more time together as a family in the holidays so who knows what I’ll end up doing!

@sev7en11

Thanks for that link - I’d heard about the ECDL years ago so I’m going to look into it.

Starting some volunteering is also supposed to be good to get you back into working again, and gain some recent experience, but I’ve had great difficulty finding anything suitable. Charities either want professional people or it’s charity shops, nothing wrong with the latter but it’s not for me as I’m not keen on dealing with the public.

I work in HR, excel skills are key you could prob find free online courses

@Hollowvictory - would you say 'advanced excel' or just working knowledge in a HR dept? Any other skills or qualifications you'd like to see in your support staff?

Outlook has moved on in the last 5 years. More functionality. If you delve into calendars, setting up events, colour coding appointments etc. The same for Google Drive and Google Sheets/Docs. They are more widely used than 5 years ago

Also check out file transfer services such as Dropbox. Most companies use one for sharing large files.
You can find a lot of free tutorials online.