The Ugandan government is set to create a professional body that will certify all secretaries in the country.
Speaking during a two das workshop for secretaries organised by the Association of Secretaries and Administrative Professionals in Uganda (ASAPU), Joan Kakongolo, the secretary for Secretarial Cadre Professional Development Committee (SCPDC) under the Ministry of Public Service said they are discussing a number of issues, including professionalizing secretarial courses and certifying practitioners.
“We have realised that different training institutions are using different curriculums while training secretaries and when it comes to performance this is sometime affected. We now want to professionalise the coarse so that the curriculum is the same all over,” Kakongolo said.
Kakongolo noted that the committee is to highlight specific course units that one should undertake to be called a secretary and these should be uniform throughout.
“There have been instances where one comes for a job placement having qualified as a secretary but on perusing their documents you find out that there are crucial coarse units that they didn’t undertake at the training centre,” Kakongolo said.
She added that all this will culminate into creation of a body that will take the lead in certifying secretaries which in turn will help professionalise the coarse and will do much in having secretaries being felt on ground.
Julius Ssemaganda the ASAPU president welcomed the development
He appealed to the committee to take it upon itself to ensure that secretaries are promoted as provided for in the Public Service standing order.
“A number of our members have upgraded to the levels of holding Masters degrees but they are not promoted. The ministry should make sure that secretaries that have worked for more than three years as it is in the standing orders are promoted after subjecting them to the due process,” Ssemaganda said.
