A secretarial school or secretarial college is an educational institution that specializes in teaching its students to work as a secretary.
The entry requirements for the profession of secretary in the 19th and 20th centuries were low: having shorthand and typing skills were the only skills required for the position. After finishing high school or after reaching the allowed age for workforce entry, if needed it was possible take courses lasting several weeks, to learn how to write shorthand and typing, which advanced entry into a shorthand or writing pool secretary position; these schools or private schools offering courses in typing, for example, existed as early as the 1880s.[1] "For example, a secretarial school might offer programs of training leading to positions as a clerk-typist, receptionist, secretary, stenographer, or typist".[2] In turn, secretarial schools may influence perceptions of what tasks are appropriate to be performed by a secretary.[3]
By the 1990s it was noted that "[t]he term 'secretarial school' itself has become antiquated in the United States; today most business and secretarial schools leave the word 'secretarial' out of their name".[4]