NVQ courses in Business and Administration

NVQ courses are fast becoming the norm in proving one's abilities and skills. NVQ courses in Business and Administration is one of the most common NVQ courses and will enable you to develop your skills within administrative or business roles within many industries - from a secretary to a managerial position. These types of roles can be pretty challenging, requiring a range of skills along with good communication.

For NVQ levels 2, 3 and 4, one would be expected to complete these basic units at the very minimum.

- employment within a business setting

- performing tasks within your place of work

NVQ courses Level 2 Business and Administration

Types of roles include secretarial and administrative, looking after administration tasks such as diary management and preparing documents. These roles are very junior, so the NVQs will not take very long to complete.

Additional units would include:

- helping looking after diaries and customers

- communicating with visitors of any sort, booking accommodation and making travel arrangements

- archiving data and scheduling meetings

- operating office equipment such as phones, computers etc

- preparing copy from shorthand, notes and recorded audio.

- preparing other documents as required.

NVQ courses Level 3 Business and Administration

Roles include those using software that's quite advanced and supervising colleagues.

Additional units would include:

- Being responsible for travel and accommodation arrangements as well as diary management

- Incorporating notes from a variety of sources.

- Reducing any risks to safety and health

- Looking after and supervising customer relationships

- Researching and reporting data

- In charge of presentations and arranging events

NVQ courses Level 4 Business and Administration

Your role would need to be experienced and in a managerial role, looking after your department, budget negotiation, resource responsibilities and chairing meetings. This role is very senior compared to the others.

Additional units would include:

- managing risk assessments

- responsible for customer relationships and contracts

- budgeting management

- Implementing company strategies and policies

- Project management

- Looking after data systems

- In charge of meetings and being innovative

An NVQ level 1 does exist for business and administration, but the tasks are somewhat basic. These include filing, sorting mail, greeting newcomers and using simple office duties such as checking emails etc. To pursue a serious business career there is no real need to take a level 1 NVQ.

What are NVQ courses?
NVQ stands for National Vocational Qualification and involves practical learning as opposed to just written exams, developing work-related skills.

NVQ courses are based on competency standards related to those working in a given occupation.

You will have a simple assessment to ascertain your skill level and the appropriate NVQ “level” will be advised. NVQ courses usually range from NVQ levels 1 to NVQ level 5. This can cater for complete beginners to advanced “management level” candidates. As the courses are structured around a specific role, you won’t waste time learning things you don’t need. However, you will be expected to meet the requirements for each level. Students can work as quickly as they want to complete their NVQ course, so there are no strict deadlines. Plus, practical parts of NVQ courses usually take place within the student’s working environment.

Should I take an NVQ course?
NVQ courses are great for preparing yourself for the actual environment you would typically work in for your chosen subject and are popular awards. Other exams such as A-levels, degrees etc are effective for theory but NVQ courses will give you a good grounding on what will be expected of you. It’s fantastic for learning without having to give up work and employers agree that they demonstrate the true skills of an employee. You will be tested on your competency to complete work related tasks.

However, you may simply want to improve your skills set due to a change of career direction or a passion. Either way, you’ll find a variety of NVQ courses to suit your requirements.