March 2, 2026

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The Executive Secretaries and PA’s Workshop 2026

This two-day programme is aimed at providing you with the essential skills, knowledge and techniques to deal with internal and external stakeholders and be an excellent PA. Delegates will learn how to cope with situations with a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities in delivering professional service. The programme [...]
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Personal Assistant Training South Africa: Elevating Your Professional Impact

The Executive Secretaries and PA’s Workshop 2026 is a comprehensive two-day programme designed to equip Personal Assistants and Executive Secretaries with the essential skills, knowledge, and techniques required to excel in their dynamic roles. This practical and interactive training will empower participants to confidently manage internal and external stakeholders, enhance their professional communication, and deliver service excellence within their organisations. The programme promises to be informational, inspirational, and highly applicable, ensuring that delegates return to their workplaces motivated, skilled, and ready to make a lasting impact.

Participating in Personal Assistant Training South Africa will provide you with invaluable skills and networking opportunities.


Personal Assistant Training South Africa: Mastering Interpersonal and Communication Skills

The workshop begins with an insightful session on Intelligent Interpersonal Skills for Professional PAs, presented by Marjon Meyer. Delegates will learn to define and improve communication, identify others’ needs and expectations, and overcome common communication barriers. This module focuses on understanding body language, improving listening abilities, managing emotions maturely, and applying influence effectively. By mastering these interpersonal techniques, participants will enhance their ability to connect, persuade, and support their executives more efficiently.

Understanding the significance of Personal Assistant Training South Africa is crucial for career development.

Following this, the session on Building Interpersonal Relationships delves into developing meaningful workplace connections. Delegates will explore social styles to achieve harmony within teams, assess communication preferences, and adapt interaction styles for optimal collaboration. This module also introduces transactional analysis, helping attendees understand adult, parent, and child behaviours in business contexts. By the end, participants will have the tools to nurture a culture of courtesy and professionalism within their organisations.


Harnessing Modern Tools: Social Media and Professional Image

In today’s digital era, every Personal Assistant plays a role in upholding their organisation’s image. The Social Media and Public Relations module focuses on using online platforms responsibly and effectively. Delegates will gain insights into managing organisational messaging, avoiding reputational risks, and maintaining “clean” social media interactions. Topics include crisis management, protocol awareness, and building strong relationships with the media. This session prepares PAs to become trusted ambassadors of their organisations in both online and offline spaces.

Embracing Personal Assistant Training South Africa will enhance your professional image.

The Professional Executive Assistant and PA session reinforces the critical role of supporting senior management. Delegates will learn to manage emotions, maintain courteous communication, and understand the etiquette that defines professional excellence. This module helps participants recognise that their manager is their most important customer and provides strategies to foster stronger working relationships across teams.

Effective communication is a key component of Personal Assistant Training South Africa.


Personal Assistant Training South Africa: Operational Excellence and Organisation Management

The afternoon session, Working in the Executive Office, covers essential administrative and organisational competencies. Participants will explore practical areas such as filing systems, digital dictation, workload management, and time optimisation. Through effective planning and prioritisation techniques, delegates will learn how to stay in control even under high pressure. Additional focus areas include diary management, confidentiality, document control, and creating efficient, paper-free environments. This session also emphasises professionalism, initiative, and the ability to represent executives with confidence and poise.

Mastering time management through Personal Assistant Training South Africa is essential for success.

The following day begins with Meetings and Minutes Made Easy, a highly practical session that simplifies minute-taking, agenda preparation, and meeting management. Delegates will learn techniques for note-taking, summarising key points, and applying correct meeting protocols. The session enhances listening skills, accuracy, and speed writing—key abilities that every successful PA should master.


Service Excellence, Communication, and Conflict Management

Service excellence is a key focus of Personal Assistant Training South Africa.

The Maintaining Service Excellence module highlights the importance of superior customer service and follow-up strategies. Delegates will explore tools to handle challenging situations, maintain professionalism during confrontations, and deliver solution-oriented communication. This session also includes in-depth telephone etiquette, teaching participants to manage both inbound and outbound calls with courtesy, precision, and confidence.

In Essential Business Communication Skills, attendees will refine their verbal, written, and non-verbal communication techniques. The module explores professional speech, body language, and modern business writing, including email etiquette and netiquette. Delegates will discover how to convey messages clearly, professionally, and persuasively, enhancing their credibility in every interaction.

Strong writing skills developed in Personal Assistant Training South Africa will set you apart.

The final session, Building Relationships and Managing Conflict, ties together the principles of teamwork, persuasion, and leadership communication. Delegates will learn to apply critical thinking and problem-solving techniques used by world-class leaders. Topics include managing difficult people, understanding guest expectations, service recovery, and persuasion strategies. This powerful conclusion ensures participants are prepared to handle workplace challenges with confidence and diplomacy.

Building effective relationships through Personal Assistant Training South Africa is crucial for teamwork.


Personal Assistant Training South Africa: Empowering the Next Generation of Office Professionals

The Executive Secretaries and PA’s Workshop 2026 offers a transformative experience for administrative professionals seeking to elevate their performance and career potential. By combining modern communication techniques, strategic thinking, and practical office management skills, this event sets a new benchmark for Personal Assistant Training in South Africa. Whether you’re an experienced PA or an aspiring executive assistant, this programme is your pathway to becoming a trusted, efficient, and indispensable professional who drives organisational success.

SPEAKERS AND DATES

EVENT SCHEDULE

Enjoy the speeches from the best this industry has to offer!



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Welcome Speech

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Intelligent interpersonal skills for professionals PA’s

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At the end of this module delegates should be able to: • Know the definition of communication • Explain how to identify the needs, wants and expectations of others • Be aware of the barriers to communication • Know what to do to improve their ability to communicate and to “read” people • Explain the importance of listening • How listening help solve interpersonal problems • Deal with emotions in an adult manner • Understanding when and how to use your influencing skills to effectively support your role • Realising that everyone has the ability to have influence and impact • Understanding the fundamental difference between personal influence and authority • Using your knowledge to apply the correct and most appropriate communication skills in every situation

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Building interpersonal relationships

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At the end of this module, delegates should be able to: • Identify the importance of good interpersonal relationships in business • Apply the concept of social styles to achieve a deeper understanding of where they and these people have a style match or a style mismatch • Assess their communication style in order to understand their interaction style • Review ways of becoming more versatile and “shifting style” with people to achieve harmonious working relationships • Link social styles to a better understanding of team members reactions to pressures • Analyse your team: its level of integration, role allocation and synergy • Check your own and your team’s degree of adult positioning • Outline an overall strategy for solving problems with teams and managers • Define the concept of courtesy • Differentiate between truly courteous and discourteous people • Define a “culture of courtesy” in an organisation and rate your own organisation against these criteria • Discuss the role of systems in courtesy and review your systems • Describe the difference between child behaviour, parent behaviour and adult behaviour in the business world (transactional analysis) • Link adult positioning to interpersonal relationships • Review their own professionalism • Formulate personal and career objectives varying from short term to long term

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Coffee/ Tea Break

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Social media and public relations

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At the end of this module, delegates should be able to: • Review the role of social media in the public relations arena • List the major tools of public relations in social media • Review their own role in public relations and promoting the organisation • Understand the importance of the “clean” social media in public relations • Know how to avoid embarrassing incidents through well-defined customer processes • Create social media policies that will avoid misunderstandings about protocol • Learning from others’ mistakes • How to handle international protocol • The role of protocol officers • Build a strong relationship with media by understanding their role in your organisational messaging. • Learn how to manage a crisis with social media • Learn about pro-active messaging and communications

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The professional Executive assistant and PA

Thumbnail Marjon Meyer

At the end of this module delegates should be able to: • Understand your manager is your most important customer • Deal with emotions in an adult manner • List steps to improve interpersonal relationships in teams • Explain how to identify the needs, wants and expectations of team members • Be aware of the barriers to communication • Know what to do to improve their ability to communicate and to “read” people • Understand courteous communication in their teams • Explain the principles of etiquette and courtesy in business • Review their own role in the team

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Networking Lunch Break

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Working in the Executive Office

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It is important to understand the vision of the organisation and the role of your Executive’s Office as a front to internal and external stakeholders • Obtaining specific instructions • Filing manually and electronically • Digital dictation • Taking initiative • Taking responsibility • Organising Controlling and ensuring that events occur in conformity with plans • Welcoming important guests • Identifying important non-verbal gestures • Representing your superiors

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Welcome Speech

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Workload management, organising and time management

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At the end of this module delegates should be able to: • Describe organising as a core responsibility of office administrators • Super-efficient planning and organising techniques to keep on top of everything • Describe how to prioritise when they are over-burdened with work • Perform a “time robber” analysis • Determine their procrastination quotient • List ways of dealing with interruptions • Describe how saving a few minutes can save a lot time and effort • Identify and review the basic systems affecting their roles in their organisation, assessing them for effectiveness and efficiency • Highlight some of the consequences for their department if information is not managed properly • Understand the importance of dealing with confidential documents and issues • Review their paper processing systems to encourage paper-free offices • Describe the importance of optimising technology e.g. internet and e-mail • Describe the importance of maintaining a diary and to follow up on their plans • Understand how a tidy office is a sign of an organised office administrator

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Meetings and minutes made easy

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Meetings and minutes made easy • Identify the objectives of meetings • List and describe different types of meetings • List the duties of a Meeting Secretary, the Chairman and other meeting officials • Outline basic meeting procedure • Explain the objectives of giving notice of a meeting, write such a notice and outline guidelines for distributing notices of meetings • Explain the objectives of an agenda, write a skeleton agenda and give guidelines for compiling and distributing effective agendas • Understand the protocol with motions, amendments, voting etc. • Describe various types of minutes and give guidelines for effective minute taking • Look at good and poor examples of minutes • Understand the correct format and procedure of minute taking • Learn how to effectively take notes using short methods • Understand how to formulate abbreviations and speedwriting • Understand that minute taking starts even before the meeting starts • Improve listening skills that will ensure better note taking • Understand the method of taking minutes effectively without writing down each word (except when required) • Learn how to summarise and note only important details down • Perform numerous practical exercises in note taking • Explain the meaning of core standard meetings terminology

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Coffee/ Tea Break

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Maintaining Service Excellence

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Maintaining Service Excellence After attending this module delegates will be able to: • Understand the importance of follow-up on customer queries and complaints • Recognise best practices and useful tools in providing superior customer service • Maintain courtesy throughout customer contact • Keeping responsibility and ownership of the telephone call • Recognise the warning signs of potentially confrontational situations • Demonstrate how to deal with difficult customers • Understand the importance of being solution orientated • Understand the importance of telephone communication in the modern society • Demonstrate how to take an incoming call at the front line or on an extension • Explain best practices in telephone communication and etiquette • Describe how to deal with both incoming and outbound calls and how to take messages • List guidelines for good telephone use and telephone etiquette • Keeping responsibility and ownership of the telephone call • Recognise the warning signs of potentially confrontational situations • Demonstrate how to deal with difficult customers • Understand the importance of being solution orientated • Understand the importance of telephone communication in the modern society • Explain best practices in telephone communication • Describe how to deal with both incoming and outbound calls and how to take messages • List guidelines for good telephone use and telephone etiquette

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Essential Business Communication Skills

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Essential Business Communication Skills • Professional verbal communication • Understanding how your speaking manner makes a difference • Body language in the business world • Non-verbal communication: Making sure your body language is conveying the message you want when dealing with important people • Written correspondence and netiquette • E-mail etiquette – what’s hot and what’s not • Utilising professional business writing techniques when writing emails, letters and faxes • Learn how to decide and organize media pooling or open access

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Networking Lunch Break

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Building Relationships and Managing Conflict

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Building Relationships and Managing Conflict • Discover the tools world-class leaders use to solve problems with critical thinking. • Understand the communication principles of the Johari window • Influence others to take decisive action for excellent results: • Managing Difficult People • Understanding Guest Expectations • Persuasion Techniques • Recovering from Mistakes • Introduce the foundation of world-class excellence • Demonstrate how to persuade/influence others • Differentiate between knowing about your guests and truly understanding them • Learn how to deal effectively with difficult people • Apply strategic problem solving and critical thinking • Understand effective service recovery


GET TO KNOW THE

MASTER-CLASS FACILITATOR


Managing Director and Principal Training & Development Consultant at Skills@Work Training

Marjon Meyer




RESERVE YOUR SPOT

BOOK YOUR TICKET

Limited seats available, please book on time to secure your spot.

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For Individuals
R 9999INCL.VAT
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Join us for Personal Assistant Training South Africa and unlock your potential today.


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