Insurance Practitioner Apprentice Review

I partake in a lot of administrative work very similar to that of an underwriting assistant. I am involved in some project work where I manage spreadsheets that rack our data across different areas of the business, such as our covers, vessels from declarations to a cover, and access and save contract endorsements for RSA and RSAL. I also do a lot of data entry, entering information into systems for renewals and new businesses, as well as using pricing tools and sanctions checkers. This is aside from my set apprenticeship learning tasks.

I have learned many new skills since starting at RSA that have come alongside all of the information I have learned. I have developed my time management and resilient skills in order to manage my workload and make time for studies in my working week. The constant intake of new information and learning new systems has taken perseverance. I have developed my Excel skills and communication, as well as bieng able to extract and identify key data.

I do enjoy working for such a large company in a big building that offers great career progression and meeting impressive people. However, it is a lot of administrative work that is tiring and unexciting, which does make it a little boring. This is more the fact that it's a starting role, though, than it being the company's fault.

There is a good structure, we have monthly 'Bright Futures' calls, we have career stories regularly with CEOs and CFOs, mentors in place to have regular calls with, and I have weekly one-to-one metings with my manager. The exam structure is clear, and we have a target of 6-hour study time per week.

I feel well supported at work. I have weekly 1-to-1s with my line manager, there are a lot of team building type events, I have my own mentor to ask for advice and help from, and members of my team are really helpful. I also dealt with a difficult situation with somebody at work that made me feel quite isolated and worried when I first joined, and I felt really supported and listened to - they dealt with the situation right away and kept checking up on me.

I feel supported, we have calls with our learning coach reviewing our apprenticeship progress and they set goals and review meetings for us. They set goals for our exam dates but are pretty flexible, I had a holiday booked before an exam and they allowed me extra time to prepare and revise.

I do think the CII studies help me understand what's going on in the office a lot more. A combination of them both helps me the most, as I recognise things in the textbook from my daily role and vice-versa. It does help clarify things and I feel comfortable that I have that side of things compared to just going into the role with no other support. However, the 6 hours of learning a week you have to log is unreasonable - it takes away from my time to actually do work. I understand the value of reflecting on what you've learned, but the detail and extent they expect is unreasonable and a little annoying.

There seem to be a few things - there's a site called Yammer where you can join pages like 'dog-lovers' or other interests. They also encouraged us to enroll for the Marine U35's events and emails. I personally enjoy engaging with people but have never been the type to join clubs etc. so it is not something I've paid much attention to.

Yes

You are well supported, and the people are very nice. It is a pretty relaxed working environment for such a big working company, and you can feel supported but not micro-manged. There are also perks to the job such as nice lunches and socialising events. It's not a dead-end job, the company values career progression.

Be yourself and work hard. You are surrounded by lots of talented people and there is a standard expected of you. The people are nice- I think building connections to others is an important thing here. Show initiative but know that people are going to be willing to help you out.