Cipd qualification, legal secretary qualification or neither?

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I’m a sahm to one dd. I have previous experience of HR and legal admin, but haven’t worked for three years.

I am expecting dc2 any day now and am thinking of doing a course in my free time. Money isn’t terribly tight atm, but we could do without wasting money on courses.

Fwiw I took a paralegal qualification in another country, which I now can’t use as we live in England! So I’ve technically wasted money on that course already.

Any thoughts / advice / experiences? Many thanks in advance, if so.

I would not invest in a legal secretary qualification unless you know there are a lot of jobs out there. In the City (I don't know if you are in London), traditional law firm secretarial roles are dwindling in favour of more personal assistant PA roles because younger lawyers are much more tech savvy. In the firms I have worked, there was a big letting go of secretaries. Those that remained became PAs to 7 or more lawyers and did things like printing docs, taking calls, arranging meetings, travel booking and expenses.

PA/secretarial roles for senior lawyers are few and far between and go to the most experienced. If you start at the bottom, you might end up in a secretarial/PA pool. You might be bored.

I don't know much about HR.

With your paralegal background, have you considered going into compliance. Start with compliance admin in a bank or law firm, perhaps in a contract or maternity cover role, to see if you like it.

I don't know what courses but compliance, especially in financial services or a law firm, is a hot area for recruitment and firms are prepared to take on people with less experience and train them.

Re-train in a booming area, is my advice.

I just saw that you want to do a course. If you are interested in compliance, I can PM you some courses for anti-money laundering or data protection that friends or colleagues have done.

Legal secretary roles in the City are becoming fewer in number. Financial services are always recruiting PAs/EAs though.

Outside of London there are still quite a few legal sec jobs but the pay is low - 15.5k - 18k. I looked into it but didht think the pay drop was worth it.

I agree with the above poster - compliance is a hot area. As is risk, project planning/scheduling/management. I do see jobs advertised as co-ordinators or project support officers. As you have legal admin experience would that suit you?

I think the Association of Project Management does some great, accredited courses. I did the Fundamentals one through work.

I wouldn't recommend the cipd if you've not worked in 3 years. You need to be able to draw on relevant experience and unless your memory is a lot better than mine, I'd struggle. Studying cipd myself at the moment, by the way.

Thanks for all these comments. I have no idea why, but it must have slipped way down my “I’m on” list, so I’ve only just read them! Good for thought.

Food for thought*

Fuck off autocorrect.

If you like the legal stuff can you look at Legal Execs - its kind of just below Solicitor so you work under their supervision but there is a route to legal based qualifications. DOn't forget the OU as well

Actually just looked and the qualifications changed a bit since I dd them quite a few yrs ago, LE still lawyers but narrower field of study so specialised

Intellectual Property is still going strong and there is a lot of variety in the support roles within the profession.

I would look at trade marks though as there seems to be more demand for trade mark paralegals / trade mark admin. Pay is better outside London though.

Sorry, forgot to add that secretarial roles are diminishing in favorites of PA / paralegals (same reason as oven by the PP).

I’ve noticed that the majority of admin/secretarial and many other office based jobs require the MOS qualification so that could be something to consider.

There is an online site called lynda.com where you can have a free trial of many courses, haven’t used it myself but a friend did several different courses on there.