Lloyd's of London Apprentice Review

Am rotating into different placements within the London Insurance Market- from broking, underwriting and claims. At the brokers I was an account handler/placing broker, meaning I was responsible for creating slips, endorsements, emailing clients and underwriters, going out to Lloyd's and broking the business and then creating the credit/debit notes and EoC packs for the client. At the moment I am an underwriter assistant in marine liabilities, so I am responsible for uploading the underwriters notes onto the system, creating notes from the broke, emailing brokers, helping ce'ops team with the risks and helping any brokers with any queries. I have been responsible for creating front sheets for the order of the risk, updating clash spreadsheets, have had meetings with actuaries to assess the risks, and have had meetings on my own the brokers and potential clients.

As part of the apprenticeship we have soft skills training, such as effective communication, presentation skills, personal impact and time management to name a few. We have also had technical training. Also at our placements we have had our own training courses- e.g. on the history of the company, compliance, risk, new starters trainings. We have to gain our Cert CII, and Lloyd's have now said they will let us study for our Dip CII also. We are studying also for our Advanced Level 3 Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services.

I love the programme that I am on, not only because the other apprentices are all great people and we all get on really well together, but also because everyone we meet really wants to help us (whether in Lloyd's Corporation, or in the market in our placements). The work is brilliant, I always have something to do, am never bored, am pushed out of my comfort zone and have been given challenging work to complete. The industry is very sociable which is great, as everyone wants to meet up with us, and help us out. The programme exceeded my expectations- I didn't realise how much fun I would have, or how many people I would meet when rotating into different placements.

Lloyd's really look after us- they take on our advice and make sure that they keep in contact with us even when we are out in the market. They want to help us out as much as possible by furthering our own career, as seen by the opportunity to meet the Chairman, the CEO, CFO and many other key people from the Corporation. They provide us with key skills, speakers, contacts and opportunities for us to develop ourselves- such as through a recent film they did on us, our views and on the apprenticeship in general. They are a great company to work for as they really care about us and helping us to develop for the future.

The programme is very well structured. We had a months induction at the Corporation, which involved some brilliant ground training, job shadowing and our own project we had to do as a presentation to key members of the market about our views on Lloyd's. The placements are well organised- 4 months at a brokers and 13 months at a managing agents, which Lloyd's have chosen and monitor our progress not only through our own feedback, but also from our mentors at the placements. We have a monthly meeting with our assessor from Bromley College to help us with the apprenticeship qualification as well as our examinations. We have regular meetings with our mentors at Lloyd's as well as ongoing training sessions throughout the whole programme back at Lloyd's.

We have monthly meetings with our training provider Bromley College, where we discuss key points which we have been working on over the previous month. Our assessor is only an email/phone call away, and she is always there to answer any questions that we have such as examination questions, clarity on what evidence we need etc. She is really helpful with everything and any problems that we have.

Lloyd's give us loads of support, our mentor leads up the HR Learning and Development team, so is always there to offer support, and if she is unavailable, the whole team is there to give advice, support and to help us out with any queries. There are always there to help us out with any problems, such as through our 'nagging' over the request that we can study for our DIPCII once we have completed our Cert, which they have now agreed to, which is brilliant as it shows that they are listening to us, eager to take on our views and change things if need be.

Travel for me is unfortunately expensive, so that does take a chunk of my salary away. As a first wage, it is not too bad (it has already gone up by £500), and does cover daily and social costs...fortunately being a girl, most of the time the guys buy me my drinks, so I'm not complaining!

The insurance industry is a very sociable community, with many clubs to join such as the Under 35s, a variety of Lloyd's clubs, variety of clubs at our placements. There are many gyms nearby, plus being right in the city, it is surrounded by many bars, clubs and restaurants so we spend a lot of our time outside of work in one of these networking. By partaking in charity events, community programmes and challenges, e.g. quiz night, film nights, abseiling the Lloyd's building, this enables us to meet many people throughout the market which is great.

Yes

The apprenticeship is brilliant as it gives you a wide exposure into all aspects of the market so that at the end we can all decide what it is we want to go into. Lloyd's is an amazing place to work, not only because of the culture, but because of the incredible history associated with it; there is nowhere else like it. The scheme is well structured, there is lots to do and we are never bored.

The application process involves a written application in which you should always give key examples and check your spelling! After this initial application, there is a telephone interview which asks you why you want to be on the apprenticeship. If successful you progress to the assessment centre which involves a group exercise on risks, as well as an interview. In all cases, be yourself and give examples as to why you believe you possess certain characteristics, have shown certain skills and if you can prove why you love insurance and want to work for Lloyd's, then you'll be fine! The whole process is very quick as Lloyd's want you to know before you even start thinking about your exams. I wouldn't have liked to have been told anything more than I had about the whole application process, as this was have spoiled the fun of the whole interview.