On the job training provides skills, networks and experience

With all the hype, disappointment and anger greeting recent matric results focus has fallen on our failed schools system. Central to the discussion is the quality of classroom teaching. As such a discussion with Simangele Tshabalala, HR Head at Alexander Forbes Risk and Insurance Services provides a refreshing alternative to formal, classroom-based, instruction.

Tshabalala argues that many of the rare skills and highly technical knowledge required in the insurance industry cannot be taught in a formal classroom situation.
“These skills, and the lifetime of accumulated knowledge and networks that makes their delivery possible, need to be learned on the job through close association with people who have been delivering effectively for years” says Tshabalala.

To this end Tshabalala has been instrumental in developing a combination of Learnerships and Internships leading to Graduate and even Stars programmes that allows Alexander Forbes to pass on and grow the vast repository of constantly evolving knowledge in its business.

Learners are indentified and selected from schools across the country through an open public invitation process conducted through the media. The 34 learners in the current Learnership Programme will experience six months of classroom teaching combined with six months of on-the-job mentorship, leading to a NQ4 level qualification.

“With all participants from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, and more than half women, our Learnerships also provide an opportunity to make the industry more representative while meeting our own transformation targets” adds Tshabalala.

At the end of the one year Learnership programme approximately 20 of the learners will proceed to Internships at Alexander Forbes, 10 will go to university on a bursary and support scheme while four will leave Alexander Forbes.

Tshabalala ads that “even those that leave find the Learnership year hugely empowering since Alexander Forbes’ reputation as the ‘university of insurance’ makes all our learners highly sought after in the market. Most are usually snapped up by our competitors, or even other industries. In this way our training programme makes a broader contribution to the industry and economy by spreading skills and creating opportunities beyond the business."

The 12 month Internship Programme which follows the Learnership Programme, involves about 40 individuals, roughly 20 from the Learnership Programme and 20 from university in full time on-the-job technical training under the close supervision of a highly experienced and well-connected mentor.

“Since so much of insurance is about relationships, the industry is impossible to penetrate unless you are introduced to knowledge networks by experienced, trusted and well connected practitioners” adds Tshabalala.

After the Internship participants often go directly on to Alexander Forbes’ Stars Programme, specific to Risk Services, where individuals who have shone in the Learnership and Internship phases are groomed for specific roles or identified for succession planning.

Alternately, following an Internship, the two year Graduate Programme provides more shadowing of seasoned professionals or business leaders, with participants eventually advancing to managing their own big clients.

Insurance is integral to every industry and sector of the economy. Providing hundreds of businesses, government departments, municipalities and other organisations with relevant advice and support requires an intimate knowledge of every industry and sector in our economy. That said, certain disciplines, like Marine and Aviation, for example, are so highly specialist that, even after a Graduate programme, they require a further five years or more working closely with in-house specialists.

These skills can’t be acquired theoretically in a classroom and, in fact, only exist in a few individuals in the country. As such “our continuous learning philosophy allows Alexander Forbes to develop, retain and pass on rare skills that can’t be acquired elsewhere” adds Tshabalala.

Alexander Forbes’ unique combination of Learnerships, Internships and Graduate and Star programmes offer a flexible and continuous learning stream providing participants with individual grooming, network development and experiential learning - all before they engage with clients.

“Jurie Erwee, Chief Executive Officer for Alexander Forbes Risk and Insurance Services, participated in a Learnership programme more than twenty years ago - demonstrating the history and proven track record of a process that has the capacity to take learners from the classroom to the boardroom” says Tshabalala.

The hands-on, mentored process ensures that participants are not set up for failure. Instead, they gain practical knowledge along with genuine capacity - enabling participants, within a few short years, to deal credibly and competently with even the most sophisticated industries and businesses in South Africa.

“This on-the-job and closely mentored skills development process allows Alexander Forbes to maintain and improve the quality and professionalism of our brand as an industry leader while transferring rare skills and networks” concludes Tshabalala.