Earlier this month, IB Australia reported on the education and training deficit across the insurance industry, interviewing brokers who are very concerned about the issue.
“We’re a knowledge-based business and where’s the knowledge? Where’s it all kept? It’s all kept in people’s heads and a lot of the old guys are moving on,” said Michael Steep, director of Sydney-based Risk Advisory Australia.
Included in that discussion was the Australian College of Insurance Studies (ACIS), one of only a handful of educational institutions offering insurance industry training courses.
ACIS is a not-for-profit organisation that provides standardised graduate and undergraduate courses in insurance law and practice. Its training program launched this year in partnership with the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia.
ACIS responded to the story and founding chairman Dr Ian Enright (pictured) offered to give their perspective.
Enright is a lawyer, academic author and company director. He was awarded the Australian Insurance Law Association (AILA) Insurance Law Prize in 2015 for his contribution to insurance law and insurance law education.
“Our teaching approach is unique because it involves close consideration of case studies and industry issues, with expert faculty members leading discussion and guiding understanding of the business context and considerations,” said Enright.
ACIS courses are offered both on campus and online through university partners. Enright and Fred Hawke, a highly respected insurance law and industry veteran, are part of an impressive team of teachers.
The college has the ambitious objective of making an ACIS qualification the key university-level qualification for advancement in the industry. The college aims to reach an operational size sufficient to service the industry’s training needs.
If that happens, much of the “knowledge gap” issue identified by brokers could be solved, Enright believes.
“We’re delighted by our initial enrolment numbers, such as our UWA Select Topics in Insurance Law course which has attracted over 40 students,” said Enright.
In terms of scale and numbers there’s clearly still a long way to go. But it’s early days for ACIS.
“The insurance industry will only see the required increase in education and training options if more universities take an interest in this underserviced area of education and they are backed with support from peak industry bodies,” said Enright.
He said the insurance industry needs to deal with its failures in recent years, including reports of intrusive surveillance and incompetency at the Financial Services Royal Commission, and later criticism of the industry’s subsequent inaction.
“The insurance industry must also demonstrate that decisive action is being taken to address identified failures and plug the gap between current competency levels and required competency levels. Industry leaders need to closely examine their businesses and people and ensure that their structure and culture supports and rewards professional development.”
Many of today’s industry leaders learned their skills on the job. Enright said qualifications should be essential for employment and advancement in the industry.
Steep, the broker in our earlier story, expressed frustration about the lack of training materials.
“If I’m trying to train a staff member, the information is not there to be purchased in order to provide that to anyone,” he said.
Enright said one of ACIS’s objectives is to correct this problem.
“We aim to raise the bar of insurance education by providing a comprehensive curriculum and body of reading materials, authored and taught by members of our faculty of leading industry experts,” he explained.
He also expressed some alarm that financial planners and brokers may soon be better qualified than those responsible for insurance products.
“It’s disconcerting that, due to the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority’s (FASEA) higher education requirements, the financial planners and brokers who recommend insurance are likely to be more highly qualified than those who develop and manage insurance products,” he said.
The ACIS chairman said the banking industry offers a good example of how the insurance industry should move forward.
“The Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA), the banking and financial services professional body, has made great strides recently in upgrading its educational offerings and developing professional standards for the retail and business banking sectors. These standards are set to be approved in October this year. This seems to be a straightforward model for industry reform and the insurance industry can certainly learn from it,” he said.
ACIS has support from partners including the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA), the Australian Insurance Law Association (AILA) and the Financial Services Accountants Association (FSAA).
