Old Mutual Insure, transforming millennials into tomorrow’s future leaders
As South Africa’s oldest insurance company, Old Mutual Insure is used to planning for the future. One of the ways it is doing that is through taking proactive steps to help South Africa’s youth, many of whom are battling to gain a foothold in the competitive employment market, to carve out a career for themselves in the insurance industry.
The insurance sector is one that is often overlooked by millennials, who are typically more interested in technology and lifestyle-oriented jobs. With this in mind, Old Mutual Insure, was proud to host the filming of the 2018 Insurance Apprentice series at its offices. The filming of the 2018 Insurance Apprentice series at the company’s offices allowed Old Mutual Insure an opportunity to support a great industry initiative aimed at developing a new skills pipeline and identifying new leaders.
Catalytic projects within Old Mutual Insure to develop insurance skills
However, the company’s support for young insurance talent does not stop at merely being proud hosts of the filming of the 2018 Insurance Apprentice series. Since last year, Old Mutual Insure has commenced two catalytic projects that enable the youth to create positive futures for themselves by acquiring insurance-related skills and qualifications. These skills will allow them to become young entrepreneurs as well as future leaders in our industry.
The first programme will see 50 young South Africans receive apprenticeship opportunities in Spray Painting and Auto Body Repairs. Through these apprenticeships and short skills programs, the learners receive employment opportunities as a result of work placements with approved Auto Body Repair centres. The second programme will see 60 young people being trained to qualify as brokers, who will then be based regionally to bolster South Africa’s broker workforce.
“As a socially responsible corporate citizen we obviously want to play our part in skills development and job creation, but this is also about developing our next generation of insurance industry leaders,” says Dr Liziwe Masoga, Old Mutual Insure’s Executive for People & Brand. “Insurance offers and exciting and varied career path for people willing to put in the hard work to develop an understanding of the industry, which really touches almost every facet of personal and corporate life in South Africa.”
Finding work opportunities for unemployed millennials
Since the start of the year Old Mutual Insure has also on boarded more than 90 learners and unemployed graduates as part of a variety of programmes aimed at tackling youth unemployment.
The company also partnered with the Sector Education Training Authority (SETA) to give selected graduates who have not yet been able to secure employment a chance to kick-start their careers via a 12-month learnership programme. The learnerships are open to those between the ages of 22 and 35 who can demonstrate that they are consistent performers who can deliver exceptional performance.
Dr Masoga says, “The art of apprenticeship is really something that has been lost somewhat over the last two decades or so but corporates are increasingly seeing how valuable it is for people to get on-the-job training as there is only so much you can learn from books or in the classroom. Learning by doing is an undervalued skills acquisition process and we hope to provide an enabling environment for this form of skills transfer to occur, which will ultimately be for the long-term benefit of our learners and graduates, our organisation and our country.”
South Africa’s youth unemployment rate of 52.8% was ranked the worst in the world last year.Research conducted by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, shows that by granting young people an opportunity to acquire skills for just 12 months, boosts their chances of staying in full time employment for the rest of their careers by more than 80%. Workplace placement or learnership programmes are therefore a great way of tackling youth unemployment.
Junior Board – a way to harness young talent
Bringing millennials into the industry is one thing, turning them into future leaders is another and this is an area the company takes particular pride.
The company’s flagship talent development initiatives is called the Junior Board programme, which is aimed at grooming managerial and specialist talent. Old Mutual Insure has already identified 15-star employees who will form part of its Junior Board programme over a 24-month period.
The programme includes experiential learning and support from Old Mutual’s executive committee and encourages the Junior Board to develop innovative solutions to address various business challenges. Employees who are part of the Junior Board are still required to continue in their current roles and must be prepared to take on the additional responsibility, something that is very similar to the role that senior board members would play in their own careers.
Through these catalytic projects, Old Mutual Insure is playing a decisive role in making sure millennials are being groomed into future industry leaders.
