Actuarial technician Review

General quarterly valuation work day-to-day, with process improvements to existing processes in areas of downtime. Additionally, I have been given the opportunity to lead and essentially manage an inter-team project development only a month after starting at WTW. There are also lots of opportunities to take part in other projects too.

Definitely! Firstly, lots of actuarial knowledge, key words and techniques as i joined from sixth form where actuarial science is not taught or even touched upon at all. I have also had a chance to lead a new PowerBI development where I was given links to study material on the Microsoft website and had to teach myself the basics, which I then went on to use daily for 3 months or so.

I would say on a day-to-day basis, I enjoy my apprenticeship very much and it is the best decision I made over going to university. I believe my confidence has had a massive boost, this is due to stepping into the unknown and also having the responsibility of presenting in an in-person office based meeting. But also 4 meetings on my PowerBI dashboard.

The programme is structured really well and it is clear which sections of study I need to focus on specific days. The tasks are a good way of highlighting to BPP and WTW what I have been up to, but also it is good to reflect on what I have been doing while working, as when it is busy, I do not get the chance to think about things like that.

All the time, whenever I need / want it and even when I do not need it. We have regular catch ups with line managers. We also get assigned a buddy to help us settle in. Buddies are not business-related and are someone friendly who can help you find your feet when you first join WTW.

We have video tutorials and we receive a text book explaining all the things we need to know. We also have monthly catch ups which are useful as I get to focus on areas I do not understand. These are on Adobe Connect and are very good. However, I believe if we could use our cameras, it would be more interactive.

The maths we learn in Module 0 is useful when doing day-to-day calculations. We do not fully use them, but understanding them is useful as then I can apply what I know to an excel formula which I could not do at the start.

We have regular socials which are good and it is great to interact with colleagues outside of work. There is also a team sports day at a local park booked in for summer which is another chance to see colleagues in a different light (everyone is competitive somehow :))

Yes

Very good support. The pay, the benefits, the colleagues I work with are all very friendly and smart. The support I feel I have, especially as a newcomer and an apprentice at just 19, makes me feel like I belong. Everyone is open and wants to get my input as I am approaching this work from a different perspective.

Be confident but know when to listen to others. Be respectful of all colleagues as they will respect you and go into it with an open mind. Be ready to learn as this will be completely new to anyone unless they have done actuarial work before (assuming no-one has as most sixth forms and colleagues do not do it).