What Training does a Virtual Assistant Need?

Nov 12, 2009 WAHM Guides, WAHM News

In an earlier post Why is a Virtual Assistant Business good for a Work at Home Mom the article covered some areas on why this is a good choice for for those looking to work from home. You may have questions on what training you may need. In the article that follows, the information should cover that very question.

This can be a controversial topic. There are those that believe you need to have some sort of formal training before you can call yourself a VA. And then there are those that believe no training is required.

While it isn’t a requirement to go through an official training program in order to start a VA business, if you are interested you can. Do a Google search for Virtual Assistant training and you will find page after page of places that offer training. Just to name a few places available that provide VA training – Virtual Assistance U (http://www.virtualassistanceu.com/) or Virtual Assistant Training (http://www.vatraining.com/). These are the first two sites listed in Google, at this time.

It can be beneficial to go through a training program because you will be mentored / coached, be given learning material, etc. This is also all stuff that you can seek out on your own and don’t necessarily need a VA training program to provide it to you.

The decision to go through VA training isn’t one that someone can make for you, it’s going to be personal preference and whether or not you feel a training program would benefit you and your business.

To be honest, a lot of the qualities you will need to be a successful VA are not things that can even be taught to you. You’ll need to be determined and determination has to come from within, it’s certainly not a skill that can be taught. Perseverance is another quality you’ll need to be a successful VA and again that isn’t something that can be taught to you.

If you opt to go the no training route, you will still need to make sure that you are setting aside a certain amount of time to be brushing up on your skills and learning all the new things that come up with the advances of technology on a regular basis. It’s still always going to be a ‘learning’ industry whether you go through training or not. A training course can only teach you so many things. So you really need to think long and hard about whether or not you will benefit from a VA training program.

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