Margaret Horsfall has extensive teaching and industry experience, both in Australia and internationally. Most recently, she taught office skills at Holmesglen TAFE in Victoria, where she was in charge of the office administration curriculum for all business students in the Administrative Studies department. She set up a virtual office consisting of all the sections you would find in a modern office, complete with relevant equipment. In this setting, students used ‘hands-on’ training and role-play techniques to develop all the skills that are used in a real office, and which are outlined in this book.

Margaret has held previous teaching positions in office administration at Alice Springs High School, and polytechnics and colleges internationally.

Previous to teaching, Margaret held different position levels at many types of companies, in wide spheres of business and in different countries. These include: administrative coordinator with a large insurance company in Melbourne; personal assistant to an accountant on a tobacco plantation in Papua New Guinea (an international organisation); relief secretary for many different types of businesses in the city of Nairobi in Kenya, Africa; personal assistant to the manager of a national bank in the United Kingdom and the World Bank in Nairobi; personal assistant to the managing director and owner of a textile company, with seven subsidiary companies, in the United Kingdom. Margaret has tried, in the chapters of this book, to pass on to students the experiences she gained in these many diversified office positions.

Margaret has now retired from teaching and moved to Tasmania to concentrate on writing books.

Sharon Turner has been teaching for TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Institute in the Office Administration and Technology Section for nearly 10 years. Prior to teaching, Sharon was a corporate accountant for CSR Ltd where she held various positions including factory accountant and internal auditor. During her time with CSR Ltd, Sharon worked in such diverse businesses as coal mines and sugar mills, the building industry and finally corporate accounting. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland and is also a CPA.

Sharon finds teaching to be an immensely rewarding career. In the chapters Sharon has written, her hope is that her business and teaching experiences combine to provide the student with a clear path through the financial maze of the modern office environment.