Administration & IT syllabus, dot point by dot point

Appropriate methods of communication (oral, written, electronic) and how to choose between them, and appropriate methods of research, including evaluating sources for reliability and presenting findings.

The features of good customer care (including a customer care strategy and service standards), the benefits of good customer care, and the consequences of poor customer care for the organisation.

The characteristics of effective teams and the benefits of effective teamwork to the individual and the organisation, together with the features and consequences of poor teamwork.

The impact of digital technology on organisations and on working practices, including the benefits and drawbacks for the organisation and the employee, and the implications for security and ways of working.

The procedures for organising and supporting a range of meetings and events, including the tasks before, during and after, the meeting documents (notice, agenda, minutes), and the impact of poor organisation.

The role and tasks (duties) of the administrative assistant, the qualities and skills an effective administrator needs, and how a well-run administrative function supports the wider organisation.

Strategies for effective time and task management (prioritising, planning, scheduling, to-do lists, electronic tools, delegation, setting targets), and the consequences of poor time and task management for the individual and the organisation.

Knowledge of workplace legislation (health and safety, data protection, equality, and computer misuse) and the strategies organisations use to ensure compliance, with the responsibilities this places on employer and employee.

The structure of the Higher Administration and IT course assessment (the question paper and the IT assignment), and what the assignment requires: completing a set of linked IT tasks across spreadsheet, database, word-processing, presentation and communication software to solve an administrative problem.

Using email effectively (attachments, distribution lists, priority, folders, signatures and rules) and using an electronic diary (e-diary) with appointment and task functions to schedule, share availability and avoid clashes.

Using emerging technologies for communication and collaboration (video conferencing, cloud and online collaboration tools, instant messaging, intranets and the internet, social media), with their benefits, drawbacks and security implications for the organisation.

Creating and using forms for data entry, creating reports (including grouped reports with totals), printing database results in a range of formats, and exporting data to spreadsheet, word-processing and presentation applications.

The structure of a relational database (tables, fields, records, data types, primary and foreign keys), and creating relationships between tables, with the advantages of a relational database over a flat-file one.

Searching a relational database using advanced functions (queries with multiple criteria, AND/OR logic, comparison and wildcard operators, sorting and multi-level sorting) and using calculations in queries and reports (calculated fields and summary totals).

Using mail merge to produce personalised documents (the main document and the data source, merge fields, and filtering recipients), and importing and linking data from other applications (spreadsheets and databases) into a word-processed document.

Researching information and presenting it effectively, using editing, formatting and reviewing features (master slides, transitions, animations, multimedia and hyperlinks), the notes feature, and managing and printing a presentation in a range of formats (slides, handouts, notes pages).

Creating and working with word-processed documents using advanced features (styles, sections, headers and footers, page and section breaks, columns, tables, templates, table of contents, track changes and comments) to produce well-structured business documents.

Managing worksheets and workbooks, consolidating data across sheets, creating dynamic links between software applications, and importing and exporting spreadsheet data from and to external sources.

Creating and formatting charts from spreadsheet data (choosing an appropriate chart type and adding titles, labels and legends), and printing in a range of views and selections (formulae view, gridlines and headings, fit to page, selected ranges).

Using spreadsheet functions, formulae and features at Higher level, including absolute and relative cell references, logical and lookup functions (IF, nested IF, COUNTIF, SUMIF, VLOOKUP), statistical functions, named ranges and conditional formatting.