Attracting people to the industry is difficult as “insurance isn’t yet a degree that people can access”, according to Gill White, director of member engagement and learning at the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Speaking on Sandra Lewin’s 100 Women in Insurance podcast, White explained that, when it came to talent attraction and driving the sector forwards, the main issue was education and the current lack of access to an insurance degree.
“Until it’s something that young people are exposed to on a much more regular basis, and not just the personal lines insurance that their parents will have, then we can’t expect them to understand it or know about it,” she explained.
This issue was of particular interest to White due to the CII’s attempts to launch T Levels - a new qualification for students aged 16 to 19 in England who've finished GCSEs - and its struggles due to a lack of interest from colleges.
“Colleges are not interested in taking up the insurance or the financial service T Level because they haven’t got anybody who understands its available,” she explained.
“We’ve been offering to train tutors up in colleges, but it’s not something that’s on their radar so it is absolutely all about getting into schools, helping kids understand what insurance is for.”
Action
White also discussed what tangible action could be taken to improve the insurance industry, identifying cross-industry co-operation.
“Within the insurance industry, lots of different organisations are doing lots of different talent attraction initiatives,” she stated.
“If we got together and did a few things really well, then we'd be far more impactful so that would be the call out: it’s OK to collaborate.”
She added that, because the different industry organisations cater to different people, there would be space for everyone.
“There’s enough of us, it’s a huge industry - 40,000 of us just in the city, so if we bring the forces together, the change can be much greater.”
AI
Additionally, White was asked about artificial intelligence and how it will affect the industry, particularly from a career perspective, predicting that the industry will “undoubtedly” change but “for the better”.
“What AI is going to be able to do for us is basically take away all of those activities that are mundane and take loads of time to do. AI will augment the human in that respect,” she explained.
This will allow more time for advisers to be in front of clients inside the organisation doing the things “humans do really well”.
White added that she believes that, if the industry opens its eyes to AI and decides to embrace it, it will “enhance our roles”.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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