Administrative support: 314,000 openings a year in every industry

Few occupations post more openings across as many industries as administrative support. Federal data projects roughly 314,400 secretary and administrative assistant openings a year this decade, and the typical entry requirement is a high school diploma plus demonstrable skills. Our 16-week track teaches those skills at no cost to the student.

The numbers, including the uncomfortable one

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median wage of $48,310 (May 2025) for secretaries and administrative assistants. Overall employment is projected to decline about 2 percent from 2025 to 2035 as software absorbs routine scheduling and correspondence. Turnover still generates about 314,400 openings a year, on average, over the decade, because people in these roles retire, get promoted, or move to other occupations and someone has to replace them.

BLS tracks the broad occupation in three groups. The first is secretaries and administrative assistants except legal, medical, and executive, which is the largest group and the one most entry-level hires fall into. The second is medical secretaries and administrative assistants, who work in clinics, hospitals, and medical offices and need some familiarity with scheduling systems, insurance terminology, and patient privacy rules. The third is executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, who support senior leaders and post a higher median wage than the group average, but who are usually hired from people who already have several years of office experience. Across the field, roughly 80 to 90 percent of employers report a high school diploma as the typical education requirement. Openings, not growth, are what matter to a job seeker, and this occupation has more of them than almost any other.

What the job is day to day

"Administrative assistant" covers a wide range of employers, from a two-person law office to a hospital department to a school district's central office. The core tasks repeat across almost all of them.

• Calendar and scheduling. Coordinating meetings across several people's availability, booking rooms or video links, and rescheduling when plans change. This is often the single most time-consuming task in the role.
• Correspondence. Drafting and proofreading emails, letters, and internal memos in a tone that fits the audience.
• Data entry and records. Keeping files, spreadsheets, and databases accurate and organized so anyone on the team can find what they need.
• Meeting support. Preparing agendas, taking minutes, and following up on action items.
• Office logistics. Ordering supplies, coordinating travel, greeting visitors, receiving deliveries, and handling the small tasks that keep an office running.
• Screening and triage. Answering calls and requests, and deciding what needs a supervisor's attention now versus what can wait.

The standard toolset is Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams) or Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar), depending on the employer. Scheduling tools like Calendly and the AI writing and summarization features now built into both office suites are common enough that employers expect fluency rather than treating it as a bonus.

What a typical week looks like

A Monday morning in a mid-sized office might start with clearing a shared inbox, confirming the week's meetings, and flagging two scheduling conflicts for a manager to decide on. Midweek brings a vendor invoice that needs to be matched to a purchase order and forwarded to accounting, a visitor who arrives without an appointment, and a request to pull last quarter's expense reports into one spreadsheet. Friday might mean drafting the agenda for Monday's staff meeting and ordering supplies before the weekend. None of these tasks is hard on its own. The skill is in holding all of them at once, knowing which one to do first, and not letting any of them fall through.

What our program covers

The administrative support track runs about 16 weeks at roughly 15 to 20 hours a week, taught by volunteer educators with one-to-one mentorship. It is the shortest of our five tracks. Coursework covers both major office suites, calendar and scheduling management, business writing and professional correspondence, data entry and records organization, and practical use of AI productivity tools for drafting, summarizing, and scheduling. Students work through office scenarios rather than lectures alone. They manage a mock multi-person calendar with conflicts built in, draft correspondence for different audiences (a customer complaint, a vendor, an executive), and organize a messy shared file system into something a new hire could use. Graduates arrive at interviews able to demonstrate the tools instead of listing them on a resume.

Enrollment is by referral from a partner organization such as a child welfare agency, a juvenile probation office, a school, or a community nonprofit. If you are a young adult between 16 and 25 and want to be considered, start with the application form and we will help you identify a referral partner. Applicants under 18 need a guardian or caseworker to sign consent forms.

How to look for the job once you are trained

1. Search by task, not only by title. Postings use "administrative assistant," "office coordinator," "front desk coordinator," "receptionist," "office administrator," and "executive assistant" for overlapping work. Read the duties list, not the headline.
2. Look at staffing agencies. Many offices fill administrative roles through temp-to-hire arrangements. A temporary placement is a common way to get a first office reference, and agencies often test applicants on Word and Excel, which is a place where training shows.
3. Apply to institutions, not only companies. School districts, hospitals, city and county governments, and universities post administrative openings continuously and often have structured hiring processes that weigh a skills test more than a network.
4. Bring evidence. A one-page sample of correspondence you drafted, a screenshot of a calendar you managed in a practice scenario, or a cleaned-up spreadsheet gives an interviewer something concrete to react to.
5. Ask your mentor to run a mock interview. Administrative interviews often include a short skills test or a scenario question ("Two managers both need the same conference room at 2 p.m. What do you do?"). Practicing the answer out loud once makes a difference.

Why this track fits the people we serve

Administrative work is the widest door into professional environments, because every industry and every city has offices that need to run. The entry requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent, which matters for young adults who may not have finished a degree. The skills the work requires, organization, written communication, and tool fluency, are also the ones that build a professional track record. A young adult leaving foster care or the juvenile justice system needs a first professional reference more than almost anything else, and this role produces one.

How AI changes the job

The tasks that used to define entry-level administrative work, formatting documents, transcribing notes, and drafting routine emails from scratch, are the tasks AI writing and scheduling tools now do faster. That is part of why BLS projects a slight employment decline for the occupation overall. The role is not disappearing. The bar for competence has moved. An assistant who drafts a first pass with an AI tool and then edits it for tone, accuracy, and the relationship with the recipient is doing more valuable work than one who types from a blank page. Judgment about what to send, to whom, and how to phrase it under pressure remains a human skill, and it is the one employers pay for. Our program treats AI tools as something to use well. Avoiding them leaves a new hire behind, and relying on them without checking leaves a new hire embarrassed in front of a manager.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a college degree?
No. BLS data shows a high school diploma is the typical entry-level education requirement for most administrative assistant roles. A degree is more relevant for some executive-support positions, which usually come later in a career.

What if I have never worked in an office?
That is expected. The program is designed for people without office experience. It teaches the software, the workflows, and the communication norms from the beginning, and a mentor works through scenarios with you.

Is the program free?
Yes. Azgari Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 41-2896092). All five training tracks, including administrative support, are tuition-free for accepted participants.

Will I need to buy software or a laptop?
Tell us during the application process what equipment and internet access you have. We address equipment needs individually rather than assuming everyone has the same setup.

Can I work while I train?
The track runs 15 to 20 hours a week, and many participants combine it with part-time work, school, or family obligations. Talk with us about your schedule during intake.

For employers

Status, September 2026: our first cohort is in training. The first graduates are expected in late 2026. Employers can register interest now.

Front-office turnover is expensive and constant. A trained, mentored graduate at no placement fee is a direct way to fill that need. Tell us what your office needs.