INSETA announces three Life Insurance Underwriters scholarships

Sandra Dunn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (INSETA), has announced the organisation’s sponsorship of three Life Insurance Underwriters scholarships.

“INSETA’s purpose is to grow and diversify the pool and quality of scarce and critical skills in the insurance sector. This is part of our ongoing collaboration and commitment to work with industry partners to develop the sector and support transformation in South Africa,” said Dunn.

A critical shortage of long-term insurance underwriters prompted INSETA to partner with the ASISA Academy, the skills development arm of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) to sponsor this popular course. The role of a life insurance underwriter is to assess whether applications for long-term insurance should be accepted, and if so, what the terms of acceptance should be. The course programme is both unique and specific and was introduced by the ASISA Academy in 2011 to address the absence of academic recognition of the underwriting profession in South Africa.

The three scholarship candidates, Ms Raddiyya Mayet, Mr Phumzile Nombila and Mr Phakamisa Siyaya, are working as interns at reinsurance companies for the duration of the programme.

Terence Berry, ASISA Academy principal, said: “The sponsorship of these three promising individuals from previously disadvantaged backgrounds is an exciting development for the programme. This will enable the ASISA Academy to further leverage the success of the course and to accelerate the transformation of this key role in the industry.”

The thirty-day course is delivered in five-day blocks over a period of six months by more than thirty five industry experts, including nine medical doctors. The programme is championed by Therese Droste, a highly respected underwriter with more than thirty years’ underwriting experience in South Africa, Asia and Europe.

Berry describes the collaboration with INSETA on the Life Insurance Underwriter programme as an encouraging development. He adds: “As a country we will move forward in the area of skills development when government and business jointly identify challenges and then work together to develop solutions, replicate success and leverage the lessons learned into other areas of need.”

The ASISA Academy is an independent business school in which high quality learning solutions are created, evolved and delivered to meet the practical learning and development needs of South African savings, life assurance and investment management organisations.

For information on the ASISA Academy go to http://performrewards.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=fbf799ac24a3fecebea7867e8&id=9fad212a7e&e=33bff2b504