Toronto, Ontario
Headquarters
Bridging the talent gap
The Humber College Faculty of Business launched the Insurance Management - Property and Casualty program over seven years ago. Its mandate addressed the need for a fast-track program to enable graduates to secure entry-level management positions at insurance companies, adjusting firms, and brokerages. Today, competing for top-tier talent with industry-specific knowledge remains a high priority for the broker channel, with the strongest competition coming from within the channel.
John McNeil, the program coordinator and professor of the Insurance Management Program at Humber College, said, "What we looked at is building a program that allows career changers, students, recent grads, and newcomers to Canada make that jump into the broker channel and to be able to do it quickly and successfully."
Leading the way in advanced education for the broker channel
Initially, the Insurance Management - Property and Casualty program was designed to empower the broker channel to attract and retain experienced talent for all lines of business. With representation from some of Canada’s best-in-class brokerages, the curriculum was created in collaboration with a broker advisory committee, Applied Systems and the Humber College faculty. The advisory committee recommended and aligned learning objectives, lesson plans, and technology training.
Since onboarding new employees can take six weeks or longer, the ability to dive into the latest insurance technology immediately is a valuable skill set Humber graduates bring to their future employers. John McNeil said, “Our partnership with Applied has been a game-changer. Our students are trained using Applied Epic®, Applied Policy Works® and Applied Rating Services®. Before our partnership with Applied, we offered a Microsoft Office® class, which wasn't serving our students – they needed to learn insurance technology and be able to see, learn, feel, work with, and get a real glimpse of the platforms they would be using once they were in the industry.”
Recognizing academic achievement and leadership
The program has successfully placed 70% of its graduates into broker channel roles. Other key milestones include 100% of the students joining the industry in some capacity and 100% completing the whole program.
Brokers and insurers are investing heavily in ensuring that the next generation succeeds. Scholarships and bursaries are a significant contributor to the program’s success. “We have received several bursaries and scholarships over the last five years, and it has been excellent,” said John McNeil. “What's even more refreshing about that is scholarships have come in not only to recognize academic achievement and leadership but also diversity, which has been fantastic.”
Another benefit graduates enjoy is multiple job offers, with some receiving up to 15 offers. “We focus on coaching and mentoring students to help them choose the best employer for their career path, and we love seeing them having that job offer in hand,” said John McNeil. “This might be their first job in a professional environment, and it might also be their first job in Canada. For us, that's one of the best and most rewarding days ever.”
To learn more about what Applied Systems and our partners are doing to support the next generation of insurance professionals, download our eBook, Empowering the Rising Generations in Insurance.
Additional Info:
- A postgraduate program preparing students for careers in P&C, students learn the fundamentals of the industry and its three main functional areas – underwriting, loss adjusting and brokerage management.
- Technology empowers transferable skills in business communications, applications, insurance accounting and metrics, marketing, sales and customer service, project management, and leadership. The insurance industry is in a talent crisis, with a large portion of the current workforce deemed to retire in the next decade. Many of our domestic and international students receive multiple job offers while still in the program.
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