INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.

It has previously been a common thing to regard typist, clerical assistants, telephone operators, receptionists etc. as secretary simply because they render reprographic support services.

Equally, stenographers are often referred to as simply because they have made some attainment in the acquisition of certain requisite office skills.

The word “Secretary” is the misunderstood concept in Industrial Occupation. Almost any man or woman who is involved in industrial jobs such as typewriting, drilling of shorthand and the lice, refers to him /her as a secretary. The employers who work as office clerks or typists are sometimes referred to as the secretary. Thus there are prefixed that proceed the word secretary to differentiate modern secretaries from typists as follows: Personnel, executive, confidential etc. the predominance of any of the above prefixes largely depends on the environment in which it is applied.

A secretary is a staff who is concerned with the preparation, preservation and transmission of all types of communication as well as the conventional secretaries duties of confidential nature at various levels (Stanwell et al 1979)

Aniche defines a secretary as “The window of the establishment. The commonest issue in the various definitions above is that they are working area of clerical activities. Any person employed as a secretary to any establishment will eventually find him/herself playing same roles stated above.

Interestingly, the traditional maltreatment and belief of people has detracted with time. This is because training for the profession is not only emphasized but sophisticated strategy and materials of modern techniques and facilitated have been introduced, obviously this has eventually facilitated the turnout of good, responsible and qualified secretaries. Consequently, people have commenced to realize fully the importance of secretaries in the offices and the societies all over the world. However, this has led to the scarcity of qualified secretaries in almost every part of the world that is why their demand has risen considerably.