Apprenticeships: Great for insurance?
Thursday September 10, 2015
There has been much talk of late around apprenticeships and ensuring that businesses are building a dedicated programme into their recruitment structure. Taking into account the various regulations and requirements in place, I can see that this raises serious problems for some businesses but there are major long term benefits to those trying to attract fresh blood. We are imminently launching ourselves into the apprenticeships sphere. It won’t surprise you to know that we have put our own unique spin on it!
Supported by David Cameron and promoted by institutes such as the CII, apprenticeships seem to be the ‘hot potato’ in the industry, with some eager to jump on the ‘bandwagon’ and others concerned that new regulations make it a somewhat complicated exercise.
Using our existing resources such as a dedicated onsite training facility, we have been keen to support a ‘Markerstudy Apprenticeship Scheme’ for some time that played to our strengths without compromising our unique flair for ‘putting the fun into insurance’.
We employ a dedicated team whose focus is ensuring that we are continually looking at new ways to support our staff in gaining professional qualifications that are relevant to their role. It is from this desire that a unique idea was born - to create our very own ‘Markerstudy University’, designed to offer a work based route to gaining professional qualifications.
In order to make our ‘dream’ a reality and with the continuing diversity of the types of roles within the Markerstudy Group, we have chosen to partner with a national training provider, Babington Group. They have a range of fully skilled assessors who can support an array of qualifications and apprenticeships and also enable us to secure funding from the Government to help facilitate these schemes. It supports our requirement for dedicated and ambitious employees, keen to take up the mantle and also reinforces our promise to our staff that we will do all that we can to support their growth.
Our hope is that this move will encourage more young people to take a leap of faith and join what we know to be a rewarding and exciting industry. Our Skills Survey with the CII last year revealed that a worrying (18%) of students questioned would consider a career in insurance.
As a business dedicated to investing in its staff, we are proud to have been recognised by Investors in People (Gold) and Best Companies (11th, Sunday Times 100) respectively. The Markerstudy University is another step towards achieving our goals and promoting the unsung opportunities in insurance - of which we all know there are plenty!