Airmic has launched a fastTrack initiative for risk managers who are new to the profession. It is aimed equally at young people starting out their careers and more experienced people such as company secretaries and lawyers who have recently taken on risk management or insurance buying responsibilities.

More than 125 members have already signed up to fastTrack, which has been developed by a small group all in their twenties or early thirties. The aim is to create a “comfortable environment for people to learn and explore,” according to its chair Kate Wallin.

The plan is to include a programme of events for relatively inexperienced practitioners to learn from experts, from within Airmic’s membership and beyond. There will be social events including a gathering at the annual conference, a tailored educational syllabus and an extension of the association’s mentoring scheme, whilst there is also a dedicated area of the Airmic website.

The educational activities will include opportunities to train in various aspects of insurance buying and wider risk management throughout 2014. One priority will be to help risk managers gain key business skills such as presentation, negotiation and business-literacy that are necessary to wield influence.

“The skills required to get to the top of our profession will be quite different in 10 years’ time from what they have been up to now. Part of our role in developing fastTrack will be to identify what they will be and to point our members in the right direction,” Kate said.

Don’t forget the FERMA-Lloyd’s training initiative! It’s a free opportunity for risk and insurance managers to spend three two-day training sessions learning from senior people in the market with an opportunity to sit on a Lloyd’s box and shadow a broker. Applications are open until 28 February. For more details, see
www.ferma.eu/risk-management/education/lloyds-programme/