Alan Vallance, CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute, spoke on the value of workplace apprenticeships to attracting new talent into the insurance profession at the BIBA 2023 conference last week.
On a panel discussing recruitment challenges faced by the UK market and the need to identify future talent, Vallance said: “Apprenticeships are a great example of structured and alternative pathways to accessing talent. People think of apprenticeships as something for 16–18-year-olds but it is actually a very flexible scheme that offers different kinds of qualifications. They can help older people returning to work, and get people ready for work in a different way than they have done before. Apprenticeships also allow access to different pools of talent. If we keep looking in the same places and doing the same things, we won’t be able to get that diversity of talent into our organisations, so I would encourage people to think differently about those sorts of things.”
The panel included Ella Wardleworth-Phillips, Senior Manager at The Careers & Enterprise, and Matt Green, Chief Executive at IDEX Consulting, and also covered the need to demonstrate the varied and fulfilling career paths available in the insurance profession and adapt approaches to attract the best talent.
Apprenticeships are training programmes for employees aged 16 and over, delivered by registered training providers to train against competence standards set out by employers representing the sector. In insurance, the CII worked with a trailblazer group to define four apprenticeships:
• Level 2 Customer Service in Insurance
• Level 3 Insurance Practitioner
• Level 4 Insurance Professional
• Level 6 Senior Insurance Professional
The CII currently have the Aspire Apprenticeship programme in place to help those seeking apprenticeships, as well as helping firms and employers from all regions, and of any size, to find the right training provider and the right apprenticeship standard for their business. The CII Apprenticeship Awards programme was also introduced in February of this year, with a cash prizes available for 8 different apprenticeship awards.
During the panel, Alan Vallance also advised on government funding available for businesses of different sizes looking to take on apprenticeships, details of which can be found here.
