A competent note-taker will be fresh! (2-2-3-6)
I believe the answer is:
up-to-the-minute
'fresh' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a competent note-taker' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'competent' could be 'upto' (synonyms) and 'upto' is found within the answer.
'note' could be 'minute' (minute is a kind of note) and 'minute' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'the' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'will be' is the link.
(Other definitions for up-to-the-minute that I've seen before include "Right now" , "Incorporating the very latest developments" , "Tie up the mount? (anag)" , "Current" , "Extremely modern" .)