Training and education

The one major issue that has arisen from this Conference and which the delegates have a desire to see addressed, is how to attract the right calibre of people into the Marine Claims section of the Insurance Industry and provide career paths and education in order to properly support the ship owners and shippers of the world in the future. The matter is receiving attention and many people involved in Marine Insurance and concerned about the ongoing education have been contacted and are co-operating to achieve a common goal.

Considerable progress has been made on this area since conference last met in October 2007.

Who is doing the work?

The project team is led by Charlotte Warr, with a core team of representatives from the Average Adjusting, P&I Club and Broking communities. Consultation is made with a far wider group of stakeholders on an ad hoc basis as matters develop.

What is the framework?

The consultation over the last 2 years has led to the development of a framework which it is hoped will provide enough flexibility for all sides of the marine market to find it of value without becoming overly complicated. The framework has three levels, with a qualification at each level to encourage candidates who are starting from school leaving rather than postgraduate level.

The framework has sought to incorporate the appropriate elements of qualifications already available such as the Association of Average Adjusters examinations and the Insurance Institute of America's marine papers. The project team are keen not in “reinvent the wheel” if possible and to utilise available resource rather than to duplicate.

• The certificate level will be made up of two compulsory and one optional paper and will be examined on an objective testing (multiple choice) basis.
• The diploma will again have a combination of compulsory and optional papers and at this level candidates can, if they wish, start to specialise by taking papers relevant to hull insurance, cargo insurance, yacht insurance etc, or they can remain general if they prefer.
• The advanced diploma level will develop the candidates further either within a specialist stream or remaining more general as they wish, again through a combination of compulsory and optional papers. At both the diploma and advanced diploma level the aim will be both to test candidates knowledge of the subject and more importantly their ability to apply knowledge to practical situations. This will be done through testing which is more in the nature of case studies and practical problems rather than questions which require regurgitation of data.

How will it work?

Ongoing discussions are being held with a number of possible providers of examination delivery providers and good progress is being made towards a solution which will enable the previously stated plan of delivery of the Certificate level papers by the end of 2009 not to slip too greatly.

Current status

An entity has to be set up to run the examinations, as there is not one global organisation currently in existence. The current thinking is that the most appropriate format will be either an educational trust or a consortium but further discussions are being held with bodies such as the Financial Services and Skills Council in London to get the benefit of their knowledge and input. The entity however it is constructed will have as its principal players key stakeholders in the project such as the underwriters and brokers organisations.

The project team has set itself an ambitious target to have the certificate level papers available for candidates to sit before the end of 2009 which means there is a substantial amount of work to be done in the next few months.

The latest version of the Framework, as at 20.05.08, can be downloaded here

Next steps

The finalisation of the creation of the controlling entity and the formal presentation of a proposal to key investors is the next step and financial information is awaited from City and Guilds to go into the proposal. The investment up front from stakeholders is vitally important for a number of reasons:

• all the work to date (as with conference) has been done by the project team entirely in their own time and the amount of work required and the additional input required will require funds;
• the second key element of investment that will be required will be candidates for the papers. The creation of an examinations framework for which no candidates are entered is somewhat defeating the point. Whilst the framework itself is designed to have maximum appeal and relevance to potential candidates, in an environment where professional qualifications are still not mandatory, employers have to buy into the process as well.

All input and support is very welcome; please contact Charlotte directly.