TO MARK the beginning of Professional Secretaries' Week, career development partners OfficeTeam and IQPS have launched the Office Professional of Tomorrow Award.

The award has been designed to recognise office professionals, that are grasping opportunities and embracing new skills.

The need for an award that publicly recognises the new breed of office professional was highlighted in the 2003 annual OfficeTeam Salary & Workplace Survey. It confirmed that the modern role of the office professional is no longer restricted to traditional duties such as shorthand and diary management, but in fact incorporates a growing range of skills, such as human resources, marketing and finance.

Steve Carter, managing director for OfficeTeam said: "As business continues to evolve through emerging technology and new management styles, the demands placed on office workers will continue to change.

"The successful office professionals of today are those who recognise and accept that their basic role is changing.

"But the successful office employees of tomorrow will be those who are now taking-up the challenge of becoming more versatile and learning new skills in order to provide vital support, not only to their immediate bosses but also to the company as a whole."

Managers and professionals are invited to put forward nominations for themselves or colleagues who are embracing change by not only delivering upon their traditional duties, but also taking-up new skills.

Nominees will be judged on excellence in the following areas - diversification of skills, teamwork, initiative and professionalism.

An independent panel of experts will be judging the nominations, including representatives from OfficeTeam, Desk-Demon, IQPS and Penny Cottee, a journalist specialising on the secretarial industry.

Sue Cook, chairman of IQPS, said: "The professionals who shine in this competition will be the stars of tomorrow and their skills will equip them to reach the top of their profession.

"It is the office employees who make themselves indispensable to business through learning new skills who will ultimately reap the rewards - both in terms of their personal job satisfaction, as well as financially."

The competition will be open until May 7 and the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on June 19, 2004.

The nomination form can be downloaded from the OfficeTeam website at www.officeteamuk.com