Hanoi: To mark the Administrative Professionals’ Week, the Tran and Tran Vietnam Consulting and Training Company in collaboration with the Vietnam Economic Times held a symposium and networking event in Hanoi on April 20 to honour the role of assistants in particular and those working in the administrative field in general, as well as to explore the future of this profession amid rapid digital technological advancements.

The event saw the presence of Le Quoc Minh, member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan (People) newspaper, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Popularisation and Education and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists’ Association; Le Trong Minh, Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Investment Review; Nguyen Van Ba, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnamnet; Nguyen Ngoc Diep, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Economic Times; along with leaders, managers, directors of many firms as well as assistants, secretaries and administrative staff who have been dedicating t
o the operation of agencies and businesses.

Keynote speakers at the event were Assoc. Prof. Dao Thi Thu Giang, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Alphanam Group’s subsidiary company; Dam Thi Thu Trang, Director of the TalentsAll Co. Ltd.; Tran Thi Thu Huong, Executive Assistant to the Asia-Pacific Regional Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and co-founder of Enlighten Books, a book collection dedicated to assistants.

At the event, the speakers said according to research documents, the role of assistants dated back to the Roman times when their tasks primarily involved pouring water, making tea, and handling paperwork and correspondence. However, since the global economic crisis in 2008, personnel changes in large corporations have considerably reshaped this profession.

Huong said in order to become a professional assistant, they must learn and possess basic skills ranging from managing schedules, collecting and managing information, organising and planning, being able to make decisions
and ensure high security, managing work schedules, to more advanced skills such as diplomacy, negotiation, human resources and project management, data analysis, or even proactively supporting the building and implementation of strategies. Particularly, the most important quality that assistants need to have is flexibility.

At present, there is a high demand for personnel for this position. Trang, as director of the TalentsAll, a human resources service provider, said not only in Vietnam but also worldwide, recruiting demand for professional assistants is increasing rapidly. In fact, a director may have multiple assistants for different projects/plans in the business development trajectory. Therefore, the opportunities for advancement in this career are also ample, and they are being nurtured to become the next generation of leaders or hold higher positions in independent roles.

In the context of the post-COVID-19 economic fluctuations and the rapid development of technology, especially artificial intellige
nce (AI), the role of assistants has also undergone significant changes. Huong, a master’s degree holder, said she currently works as an executive assistant remotely, handling all tasks on a digital platform. This presents advantages, opening up many job opportunities while also posing challenges as enterprises are accelerating their digitalisation processes.

However, Giang said the assistant profession cannot be replaced by AI.

“AI can help reduce the workload, streamline some tasks, helping assistants save time but cannot completely replace their profession. This is because executive assistants need to possess emotional intelligence. This is a particularly important factor. For example, when developing direction and strategy, AI can synthesise data and propose solutions, but choosing which option to go with requires the assistant’s reasoning, logic, experience and intuition. Or speaking of collaboration, one of the qualities of an assistant is networking and group working to grasp and collect information
and feelings before proposing solutions, which AI cannot do’.

Also at the event, the Vietnamese version of the book “The Modern-Day Assistant” by British author Lucy Brazier was unveiled. This set the stage for the introduction event of the “Enlighten books’, a book collection dedicated to assistants by Huong and Tran Thi Kieu Anh, co-founders of the initiative.

Source: Vietnam News Agency