“Training” the assistant, virtual assistant and intern – and why I’m not interested!

Well, I was going to take a nice, leisurely afternoon – visit my forums, do some posting, enjoy the serenity and peaceful day. WOW, was I mistaken!

I was on a VA forum (the VACOC) and I’ve just found out about a new “training” program designed to “help” the VA industry. Now look, I am all for training. I try to take teleseminars and marketing classes, I subscribe to newsletters and ezines, I belong to forums where I can learn and grow. But when I see promotion materials that show a woman with eight arms pouring coffee, typing, answering the phone, and so on (you get the picture) and the caption reads, “The Problem with Most Assistants, and Why It’s Not Their Fault,” I have to say I take offense. Here are just a few themes I found in this program that I feel demeans and demotes the VA industry:
#1 – I am not an employee – so why would you have one message to different industries with different ways of working and different thought patterns. I am not an employee nor am I an intern. I do not have bosses or employers. I am a business owner.

#2 – I am not embarrassed by a potential client asking if I can provide a service that I don’t provide. I cannot be “all things to all people” nor do I want to. When I am talking with a potential client, I explain the services I offer. If there’s not something I offer, I can give them names of VAs who do offer that service.

#3 – I don’t get “trained” by my clients (and that isn’t an offensive statement). When I partner with a client, they expect me to be well-versed in certain tasks. After all, that’s why we are working together – to take some of their burden so they can concentrate on growing their business. I know what I am doing or I don’t take on the task. If I see a need that many of my clients are looking for, and I feel it is an area I would enjoy providing, I take the initiative to search out training in that area. No one sends me to “school.”

#4 – The whole tone of this “training” program is condescending, not only to VAs, but to all administrative assistants. I have over 25 years of experience in administrative assistance, executive assistance, legal assistance, and now virtual assistance. I have trained, learned, worked hard and become an expert in my field. I find the wording in this training program to demean and debase what an assistant is and does. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished and am continuing to accomplish.

There is much more I could say, but – my point here is that I feel assistants, virtual and otherwise, have been done a huge injustice by this “university” program. I for one will not be a part of this.

I urge everyone to look carefully before you join any training program. There are many programs on the Internet that promise to make you an expert for a fee. Read carefully, be wary, be cautious. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

Vickie