APR Training Services
At APR, we put all of our new actuarial graduates and junior analysts through their paces with a rigorous induction training programme. This programme covers a mix of sessions covering the insurance industry, technical actuarial skills, regulatory knowledge and wider business/professional skills. We have refined this programme over a number of years so that it best equips our staff with the skills they need to quickly add value to our clients and reflects the changing needs of the profession and client demands.
Training and development of our staff is a large focus for APR and recent graduate surveys typically point to a structured training and development programme as one of the top features graduate talent will prioritise in choosing an employer; we have previously written about the importance of staff training and development. The feedback we receive from our clients – 86% of feedback completed by client managers in 2024 said that the APR staff they worked with exceeded expectations – is testament to our belief that the investment we make in the capability of our staff via training confers benefits to all of our clients, our staff and APR.
Our approach to training
Our training covers a variety of dimensions which, in our experience, is key to developing a set of knowledge, behaviours and skills that commonly differentiate higher-performing members of an actuarial team.
Examples of relevant knowledge include the regulatory environment, legislative change relevant to actuaries, a solid understanding of the insurance industry and key products, and common actuarial methods like reserving and pricing techniques.
Examples of key technical skills include fundamentals of actuarial mathematics, Excel modelling, coding in Python and R, data interrogation via SQL, and wider capabilities such as the ability to write clear documentation. Focus is also given to relevant communication skills such as presentations and effective contribution in group meetings, the importance of skills in a professional workplace such as embracing difficult conversations, and effectively liaising with senior managers and subject matter experts.
Examples of desired behaviours we promote via training and feedback include appropriate use of judgement, commercial acumen; a higher-level focus on sense-checking of key results and parameter sensitivity, and focus on making work easy to review for a manager.
The beauty of this approach is that one well-chosen model or exercise can efficiently provide or hone all of these desirable attributes concurrently as the following examples show:
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Our experience is that early exposure to such learning can inculcate a long-term intellectual curiosity in developing such skills further and sets a positive culture of knowledge-sharing within your company that can be recycled to the benefit of your future recruits.
Training Services
Seeing the gains in productivity and capability that this emphasis on training can provide, we are keen to share this expertise with our clients and we offer many of our training courses externally.
In late 2024, we delivered some of our largest external training to date, delivering tailored actuarial induction courses to two firms in the London market. These sessions differed significantly between clients; delivered at very differing paces, focussing on skills and technical areas of particular interest to each client and also fitting around other internal induction sessions and other work that they had scheduled.
As part of these sessions, we delivered training on a range of topics, from GI capital modelling and SQL to presentation skills and software testing. While most of these sessions were aimed at new graduates, some of the technical sessions were also attended by more experienced members of the clients’ actuarial teams, expanding their skills base with introductions to areas which they had not previously used.
We believe there is a clear benefit of delivering small group training with an actuarial focus as it allows staff to come together and share their experiences. A face-to-face setting where possible gives trainers the opportunity to gauge how the material is being absorbed and provide additional support where necessary. From our past experience we have also found that face to face delivery enhances the communication within the group, with attendees often supporting one another and sharing their own insights into how they can apply the skills and techniques learned into their own roles.
Feedback on courses we have delivered to date has been positive, with most attendees finding the skills acquired useful for their day-to-day roles. We are keen to help share this knowledge with our other clients and further details on the types of courses we can offer are available on our dedicated training services webpage. Some of the benefits that APR’s training can offer include:
- Small group sessions, where support can be individually tailored to attendees
- High quality, tried and tested, training materials which have been used to train our own staff for a number of years
- Extensive hands-on work during course delivery requiring active input and learning from attendees
- Tailoring our training sessions to suit the needs of your business, covering a wide range of different technical topics and business skills with courses aimed at various skill levels
- Offering an actuarial perspective, with all of our courses delivered by our in-house actuarial team who have practical experience using these skills in their day-to-day roles
- Post training support, including responding to any follow up-queries and providing individual feedback to attendees on submitted exercises.
Whether it’s training you deliver internally or via an external provider such as APR, we believe many of the above features are key to embedding such learning and making it stick.
Upcoming Training Sessions
In the first half of 2025, APR will be running a number of open training sessions to give our clients a taster of the types of training we have to offer. Subject to availability, clients will be able to send one member of their actuarial team to attend each of the following one-day training courses free of charge. Some dates are yet to be confirmed, but all sessions will take place in central London. The available sessions are:
- Fundamentals of Python (already scheduled)
- Fundamentals of R
- Introduction to SQL
If you are interested in sending a member of your team to any of these sessions, or would like some more information on the training support APR can offer, then please contact Gary Heslop or Jack Foley.
Jack Foley
March 2025
