Final six for The Insurance Apprentice revealed
“A man is but the product of His thoughts. What he thinks, He becomes.”
Mahatma Gandhi
FAnews, a magazine and online publication focussing on the South African insurance and financial services industry launched The Insurance Apprentice, the first ever reality type series the South African insurance industry has ever seen, in July, similar to the UK Broker Apprentice.
We shared this great initiative with you in August which is all about human capital development, portraying the industry as an exciting one and giving young people a chance to learn and develop. The deadline for applications was the end of September, after which we have gone through quite a process to choose the best six apprentices.
With 117 applications received for The Insurance Apprentice, more than its UK counterpart, panel members invited 21 applicants to participate in a fun session that had them playing three strategic, yet thought provoking games in order to mark their spot in the final six of The Insurance Apprentice.
Who does not like to beat an opponent in a game situation by out-smarting them? Is it not gratifying when a planned strategy works to perfection and produces the winning play? Working together with a group, as well as individually to reach a strategic game goal can be rewarding.
The competition got stiffer in the second round of the selection process as the applicants required greater imaginative leaps than others, yet all three games had the common goal of being enjoyable at an individual as well as a group level. The games presented interesting insights to the individual’s thought processes, competitive natures and personalities.
Having been through the second round of the selection process the panellists have chosen the final six applicants they have earmarked as the best possible candidates for The Insurance Apprentice. The six industry representatives are Aaron Mrabalala, Azhar Said, Matthew George, Mopedi Melato, Roxanne Moodley and Walter Ngobene.
With the final six participants rounded up for The Insurance Apprentice the panellist are getting ready for the intense five day learning experience in which these six apprentices will be given the chance to showcase their skills through a variety of tasks within the market such as underwriting, broking and claims management in order to test their industry knowledge, resourcefulness and determination, that will ultimately be judged by an expert panel, which will include the industry’s very own ‘Donald Trump’.
The filming of The Insurance Industry will happen over five days in January 2015 where the six contestants will be rated according to their performance on each task. The unique video series which, will be hosted at the FNB Conference Training Centre, will enable viewers to watch and follow the journey to the crowning of The Insurance Apprentice winner.
The series will be aired early 2015 via the FAnews and The Insurance Apprentice websites, and the winner will become the first South African Insurance Apprentice who will walk away with a fantastic prize of a trip to Lloyds of London, sponsored by Lloyds of London.
The official sponsors of the first Insurance Apprentice series are Alexander Forbes, AON, Aquarius Underwriting Managers (AUM), Europ Assistance, FNB Insurance, Fulcrum, Hollard, the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA), Innovation Group, Inseta, Lloyds of London, Marsh South Africa, Milpark, MUA, Mutual & Federal, Norton Rose Fulbright, PWV Insurance Brokers and Stalker Hutchison Admiral (SHA).
An insurance career can offer stability, variety, challenges, rewards, above average potential for advancement and the opportunity for students to take their career where they want to go. The educating part is aimed at young industry people who are still finding their way in the industry, it is aimed at students studying insurance and it is aimed at a wider audience outside the industry – educating them about the complexities we have in our industry.
To keep up to date with The Insurance Apprentice we invite you to like The Insurance Apprentice Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/theinsuranceapprentice and follow The Insurance Apprentice on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheInsApp.
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