Occupational profile
Business administrators have a highly transferable set of knowledge, skills and behaviours that can be applied in all sectors. This includes small and large businesses alike; from the public sector, private sector and charitable sector. The role may involve working independently or as part of a team and will involve developing, implementing, maintaining and improving administrative services. Business administrators develop key skills and behaviours to support their own progression towards management responsibilities.
The responsibilities of the role are to support and engage with different parts of the organisation and interact with internal or external customers. With a focus on adding value, the role of business administrator contributes to the efficiency of an organisation, through support of functional areas, working across teams and resolving issues as requested. The flexibility and responsiveness required allows the apprentice to develop a wide range of skills.
The business administrator is expected to deliver their responsibilities efficiently and with integrity – showing a positive attitude. The role involves demonstrating strong communication skills (both written and verbal) and adopting a proactive approach to developing skills. The business administrator is also expected to show initiative, managing priorities and own time, problem-solving skills, decision-making and the potential for people management responsibilities through mentoring or coaching others.
Assessment Plan
The Business Administrator apprenticeship is a minimum of 12 months and should typically be completed within 18 months. The apprenticeship provides a highly transferable set of knowledge, skills and behaviours, which can be gained working across an organisation and its processes. The apprenticeship is a firm grounding in organisational operations and functional processes, as well as the wider working environment.
Key responsibilities include developing, implementing, maintaining and improving administrative services. In doing so, the apprentice is expected to work independently and take responsibility for the outcomes of their work, with support of the employer and the training provider. Through working across functional areas, apprentices build team relationships quickly and learn from others to develop specific skill sets. The need to communicate and represent their work clearly is reflected in the assessment methods of End Point Assessment (EPA).
The assessment methodology provides fair, valid and rigorous assessment across the learning outcomes of the Standard and guidelines on completing assessment.
In developing the Assessment Plan, the following principles have been applied:
- applicability of this apprenticeship role to the administrative services of any organisation
- equal opportunities across apprenticeships, where expectations of assessment should be met irrespective of employer size, sector or functional area
- ‘continuous learning’ emphasis to be met throughout the programme in working towards EPA, such as with the portfolio being prepared on-programme for discussion at interview