Office Management and Administrative Skills Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Office Managers, Administrative Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OA-023

Before you join: Participants should have at least one year of administrative, executive support, facilities coordination or office coordination experience.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Office managers and administrative managers keep essential work moving: diaries, meetings, records, suppliers, facilities, travel, budgets and internal communications. When these activities are managed reactively, deadlines are missed, decisions lack supporting information, confidential material is exposed and senior staff lose time to avoidable coordination. The role requires more than efficiency; it requires clear operating routines, sound judgement, service standards and the ability to coordinate people with different priorities.

This course develops the practical management skills needed to run an office function with control and credibility. Participants learn to define administrative service levels, prioritise competing requests, manage executive support, design meeting systems, maintain records, control office budgets and purchasing, coordinate facilities and suppliers, and improve team performance. The course uses RACI, the Eisenhower Matrix, MoSCoW prioritisation and ISO 15489 records-management principles to structure everyday administrative work.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic cases, group problem-solving, simulations and individual application planning. Cases reflect the demands of corporate headquarters, public agencies, project offices, banks and non-governmental organisations. Participants leave with a practical office management toolkit including service standards, workflow controls, meeting templates, a records classification approach and a 90-day improvement plan. Delivery is instructor-led over five days, either in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online. Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits experienced administrators moving into office management, as well as current office managers seeking more consistent systems for service delivery, stakeholder support and administrative control.

What you will be able to do

  • Design an office service charter with defined clients, standards, response times and escalation routes
  • Apply the Eisenhower Matrix and MoSCoW method to competing administrative priorities
  • Build RACI matrices and workflow maps for recurring office services
  • Prepare executive diary, correspondence and meeting-management systems that protect senior time
  • Implement an ISO 15489-aligned records classification and retention control approach
  • Produce office budgets, purchase requisitions and supplier performance controls
  • Conduct structured team briefings, performance conversations and workload reviews
  • Create a 90-day office improvement plan with measures, owners and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Move from reactive task handling to planned office service management
  • Gain practical authority when setting priorities, standards and escalation routes
  • Reduce diary conflicts, meeting waste and follow-up failures
  • Use clearer records and correspondence controls for confidential business information
  • Prepare a credible improvement plan for a current office-management challenge

For your organisation

  • More reliable administrative response times and clearer ownership of recurring services
  • Less senior-management time lost to diary, meeting and correspondence failures
  • Better control of office purchasing, supplier commitments and routine expenditure
  • Improved retention, retrieval and disposal of business records
  • Stronger continuity during absences through documented workflows and handovers

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define the office management function, its services and its accountability boundaries.

  • Office management mandate defined through customers, services, boundaries and decision rights
  • Service charter structure covering standards, response times, channels and escalation
  • Stakeholder mapping identifies senior leaders, staff, visitors, suppliers and partners
  • RACI matrix assigns ownership for recurring administrative processes and approvals
  • Administrative risk register captures service failures, controls, owners and review dates
  • Professional judgement applied when policy, urgency and stakeholder expectations conflict

Participants can prioritise administrative work and maintain visible control of commitments.

  • Eisenhower Matrix separates urgent work from important planned administrative activity
  • MoSCoW prioritisation clarifies must-have, should-have, could-have and deferred requests
  • Weekly work plans balance fixed commitments, service demand and improvement tasks
  • Kanban boards visualise request status, blockers, handovers and due dates
  • Triage criteria distinguish immediate action, delegation, scheduling and escalation
  • Protected focus time reduces interruption costs during detailed administrative work

Participants can provide controlled executive support and produce clear administrative communications.

  • Diary management protocols protect priorities, travel buffers and decision-making time
  • Gatekeeping techniques screen requests using authority, urgency and available information
  • Briefing notes follow purpose, context, options, recommendation and required decision
  • Correspondence logs track incoming actions, owners, deadlines and closure evidence
  • Email protocols use subject lines, action requests and appropriate distribution lists
  • Confidential communications handled through need-to-know access and secure transmission

Participants can design and administer meetings that produce accountable decisions and actions.

  • Meeting purpose statements distinguish information sharing, decisions and problem resolution
  • Agenda design allocates decision items, timings, papers and meeting roles
  • Pre-read schedules give participants sufficient time for informed preparation
  • Chair briefing packs identify contentious issues, decisions and attendance risks
  • Action registers record owners, deadlines, dependencies and completion status
  • Minutes capture decisions, rationale, actions and matters requiring escalation

Participants can establish practical controls for records, documents and confidential information.

  • ISO 15489 principles distinguish records, documents, metadata and authorised disposal
  • File plans classify records by business function, activity and transaction
  • Naming conventions standardise dates, versions, subjects and document status
  • Retention schedules specify retention periods, disposal triggers and approval authority
  • Version control prevents duplicate files and unauthorised document changes
  • Access permissions protect personal data, commercial information and sensitive correspondence

Participants can manage routine office expenditure, purchasing requests and supplier performance.

  • Office budgets distinguish committed costs, actual spend, forecasts and variances
  • Purchase requisitions document specification, approvals, coding and business justification
  • Three-way matching checks purchase orders, delivery evidence and supplier invoices
  • Supplier scorecards assess timeliness, quality, responsiveness, cost and issue resolution
  • Contract registers track renewal dates, notice periods, owners and obligations
  • Expense controls apply policy limits, receipts, approvals and exception reporting

Participants can coordinate workplace services and prepare for common office disruptions.

  • Facilities service schedules cover cleaning, maintenance, security and consumable replenishment
  • Workspace audits identify safety issues, equipment needs and accessibility barriers
  • Visitor management controls registration, identification, escorting and emergency information
  • Incident logs record facts, immediate actions, reporting routes and follow-up
  • Business continuity checklists address power loss, access failure and supplier disruption
  • Office moves require inventories, communications, responsibilities and acceptance checks

Participants can organise administrative teams, set expectations and address performance issues.

  • Role profiles define responsibilities, service standards, authority and reporting lines
  • Daily huddles coordinate priorities, workload changes, risks and support needs
  • Delegation plans match task complexity, competence, authority and review frequency
  • SMART objectives translate office service requirements into individual accountabilities
  • Performance conversations use evidence, expectations, listening and agreed follow-up
  • Skills matrices identify cross-training priorities and single-point dependency risks

Participants can manage service expectations and resolve administrative issues professionally.

  • Service recovery model acknowledges impact, clarifies facts, remedies and follows through
  • Expectation-setting conversations agree scope, deadline, dependencies and communication channels
  • Escalation protocols distinguish operational problems, policy breaches and urgent risks
  • De-escalation language separates people from problems and confirms shared facts
  • Complaint logs identify recurring failures, root causes and corrective actions
  • Root cause analysis uses five whys for recurring administrative service failures

Participants can prepare a measurable plan to improve an office management process.

  • Process mapping exposes delays, duplication, approval bottlenecks and unclear handovers
  • Baseline measures track response times, backlog, errors and customer feedback
  • Improvement priorities selected through impact, effort, risk and resource criteria
  • Ninety-day plans assign actions, owners, milestones, measures and review dates
  • Control reviews test whether procedures remain followed, useful and current
  • Personal application commitments identify first actions, sponsors and evidence of progress

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Office service charter template
  2. Administrative RACI matrix
  3. Executive meeting management pack
  4. Records classification and retention checklist
  5. Office supplier scorecard
  6. 90-day office improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Office Managers — seeking consistent systems for services, people and office resources
  • Administrative Managers — responsible for improving administrative performance and stakeholder support
  • Senior Executive Assistants — preparing to manage wider office operations and administrative teams
  • Facilities and Administration Coordinators — coordinating premises, suppliers and shared workplace services
  • Team Leaders — supervising administrative staff and recurring support processes
  • Project Office Administrators — controlling meetings, records, reporting and stakeholder requests

Skills and tools covered

Office service managementExecutive support coordinationRecords controlMeeting managementSupplier coordinationAdministrative team leadership

Tools and standards

RACI matrix, Eisenhower Matrix, MoSCoW prioritisation, ISO 15489

How the course runs

Training methodology

The instructor introduces each method through short briefings, then participants apply it to administrative situations such as conflicting executive requests, delayed supplier services, meeting failures and records-control gaps. Group exercises use service maps, RACI matrices, prioritisation decisions and supplier scenarios. Simulations develop briefing, escalation and stakeholder communication skills. Participants review their own office routines throughout the course and build an application plan for changes they can implement after return to work. Facilitators adapt cases to the cohort’s sector and responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least one year of administrative, executive support, facilities coordination or office coordination experience. They should be familiar with common office documents, email, calendars, meeting arrangements and basic spreadsheet use. The course assumes participants have handled competing requests and worked with internal customers or suppliers. No prior management qualification, finance qualification, procurement certification or specialist records-management training is required. Participants do not need to supervise staff currently, although those with team leadership responsibility will be able to apply the material directly.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have practical experience in administration, executive support, facilities coordination or office coordination. A management qualification is not required, but the course is designed for people who already understand routine office work.

Bring examples of non-confidential office procedures, service issues or recurring administrative challenges you want to improve. A laptop is useful for adapting templates, although course materials are provided.

It is best suited to office managers, administrative managers, senior executive assistants and coordinators with responsibility for office services. It also suits staff moving from senior administration into a broader management role.

Executive assistant courses focus mainly on supporting one or more senior leaders. This course includes executive support but also addresses office systems, administrative teams, records, suppliers, facilities, budgets and service performance.

Participants leave with templates and a 90-day improvement plan tied to an office process they choose. Typical applications include improving meeting follow-through, clarifying service ownership, controlling records or monitoring suppliers.

The five days cover ten modules in teaching order, from role definition and prioritisation through to improvement planning. Each day runs 08:30-16:30, with about 6.5 contact hours, breaks and time for application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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