Values and Skills of a PA

As a Personal Assistant (PA) there are certain values and skills that you might need in your PA role, including:

Values

• Being respectful
• Being encouraging and enabling
• Having understanding and empathy
• Flexibility
• Responsibility and reliability
• Being committed to equality and diversity
• Understand the challenges faced by disabled people
• Being willing to learn.

Skills

• Listening skills
• Interpersonal skills
• The ability to be personal yet professional
• Being able to communicate effectively with different people
• Advocacy skills
• Knowledge of the local area
• Some employers may need support with cooking, cleaning and household management so these skills can be useful
• Some employers need their PA to be able to drive.

Next steps

To find out if you’ve got what it takes to work as a PA, try the ‘A Question of Care’ interactive video challenge below.