Thirty years ago secretaries had to use cumbersome manual typewriters, and any corrections were a time-consuming nightmare of tipex and layers of carbon paper.

These days secretaries are no longer called secretaries but administrative professionals and the flick of a computer key can change a multitude of errors.

But in the 21st century, according to an association set up by Bermuda office workers, there will be a larger section of secretaries working from home, more males in PA positions, and a more diversified workload -- but there will, unfortunately be no paperless office.

To help prepare workers of all levels to cope with the coming challenges in the work place, the Bermuda chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) is holding a seminar on October 13 called "Becoming the Office Professional of the 21st Century''.

The seminar will help secretaries, PA's and other office professionals to embrace the technological advances and changes in the workplace that analysts believe will change the way we all work.

Carole Linthwaite, CPS, and her colleagues at IAAP organised the day-long event and arranged for a self-motivation guru to come and speak to the group.

Michael P Scott, the president of Empowerment Unlimited, will be on hand to speak to the expected 170 members and offer advice.

"The talk will be about the way forward for our profession. We have had to embrace many changes in the last three decades, and our jobs are almost unrecognisable from when we started. But we have to keep changing and keeping abreast with the developments in our environment,'' said Ms Linthwaite, who started off as a secretary 30 years ago and is now a senior secretary in Bermuda as well as being a founding member of the Bermuda branch of the IAAP.

She added:"The group used to be called Professional Secretaries International, but last year at a meeting of the IAAP in Atlanta, Georgia there was a vote to change the name. Hardly anyone is called a secretary anymore. When job adverts go in the paper it is usually a for an administrative professional.'' When Ms Linthwaite started the job of secretary was entirely different to the one she does today.

"No one these days would dream of asking you for a cup of coffee, but in those days that was standard. My days would be very predictable, I would come in and take dictation, or there would be letters on my desk, and I would spend the rest of the day transcribing them on a typewriter. It would honestly take all day.

"With new technology you can have a letter written, corrected, signed and e-mailed half way around the world in a couple of minutes.

"Now my working day is much more varied. I can have the handwritten dictation on my desk... but often I also have minutes to take, spread sheets to do and power point presentations (video presentations) to make up. My job is now more varied and interesting.'' Shirlene Ratteray, CPS, is the current chairperson of the Bermuda IAAP. She has been working in the business for 26 years and recalls how different the technology was when she began her career as a junior secretary.

"I started on a manual typewriter with stencils, and then went on to the electric typewriter, and then to an IBM with corrector tape, then `no more snow' and then machines with some memory. Then we moved on to computers.

"There were these counting machines that you put numbers into and pulled a big handle to continue. And there were these huge wide manual typewriters to input numbers into columns, and they had 12 sheets of paper for copies in them.

Secretaries gear up for new Millennium "If you made a mistake, you had to blot it out and then go back and put bits of paper through each sheet to stop it marking through the carbon paper. That was not fun. One of the first jobs I did was take the paper from the telex machine and type messages in the machine and send them. I liked the way it transferred words into a narrow strip of paper with little holes in it.'' Now Ms Ratteray's job is entirely different and more closely resembles that of an office manager or middle manager.

In fact more staff have been taken on to do some of her more mundane tasks to allow her to concentrate further on running the office and taking on more management tasks.

Karlene Lightbourne, who is also a Bermuda IAAP committee member, started her career 18 years ago.

"I started on an electric typewriter, and spent a great deal of time doing shorthand or using a Dictaphone. Then we started doing more and more on the computer -- now I do all the accounts, rents -- our company rents properties.

My duties even include collecting the rents now. I enjoy my job a great deal more now, because it is much more challenging. But the more responsibility you get, also the more stress, which for some people is a problem.'' Now all three women are looking forward to the 21st century to see what new challenges will face them.

"I think there will be a lot more people working from home. Imagine, you could get up in the morning with your hair all standing up, in your pyjamas and a bit of toast stuck to your face and get straight down to work. Much of what we do could be done from home these days,'' said Ms Linthwaite.

Electronic mail, video conferencing and voice activated computers help in a flexible working during the week, which would help many mother's perform both home and work duties.

But all three women agree that there will never be the "paperless office'' as was envisioned at the beginning of the computer age.

"If anything there is more paper now. Someone sends you an e-mail, and then you print it out, and send it on to another 20 people, who then print it out.

Everyone has their own copy in a file somewhere, so there will always be files and hard copies,'' said Ms Lightbourne.

But whatever happens, the women say they will never be replaced by any machine.

"But you will never not need us,'' said Ms Ratteray. "They have tried, but we are a integral part of any business. We may not be called secretaries anymore, but we do an invaluable job.'' Ms Linthwaite added: "I think there will also be more and more men joining our ranks. While we have no male members at present, there are more and more men joining the ranks. But they probably won't be called secretaries, but assistants or something like that.'' Ms Ratteray laughed and added with a smile on her face: "Yeah, they'll probably be called managers.''