Administration & IT

Administration supports the effective running of organisations across the economy, and offers wide ranging employment opportunities. The Administration and IT course makes an important contribution to general education through developing a range of essential skills that will stand you in good stead regardless of the career path you eventually choose. It is also extremely useful in other walks of life. For example, being organised and being able to produce professional-looking documents could be extremely useful for producing coursework at college or university.

This course will develop your administrative and IT skills and will allow you to contribute to the effective working of an organisation.

The Course – National 4

To pass the course at National 4 level you must pass all 3 of the units, as well as the Added Value Unit. These are all marked by your teacher. The Added Value Unit takes the form of an assignment, and its purpose is to draw on the knowledge, understanding and skills developed in the other 3 units. You will undertake practical administration, and IT-based tasks, to organise and support a small-scale event(s).

The 3 units studied at National 4 level are:

• Administrative Practices

The purpose of this unit is to give you the basic introduction to administration in the workplace. You will begin to appreciate important legislation affecting employees, key features of good customer service, and the skills, qualities and attributes required of administrators.

• IT Solutions for Administrators

The purpose of this unit is to develop your basic skills ain IT and organising and processing simple information in familiar administration-related contexts. You will use the following IT applications: word-processing, spreadsheets and databases to create and edit simple business documents.

• Communication in Administration

The purpose of this unit is to allow you to use IT for gathering and sharing simple information with others in familiar administration–related contexts. You will develop a basic understanding of what constitutes a reliable source of information and an ability to use appropriate methods for gathering information.

The Course – National 5

To pass the course at National 5 level, you will sit an assignment that is marked by an SQA marker. You will then sit a question paper during the exam diet (May/June) that is also marked by and SQA marker. You will be awarded a grade from A to D. based on your total mark across the 2 assessments.

The Course – Higher (National 6)

The Higher course builds on the skills, knowledge and understanding developed in the National 5 course and adds another level of complexity and challenge for students.

The Higher Administration and IT course is split into 2 areas:

• Administrative theory and practice.
• IT applications.

The course covers the mandatory skills, knowledge and understanding required for each component.