Working in the insurance industry means working on social impact. To bring this to the attention of students, the Association organises various activities.
Business, boring, hierarchical, formal and money. These are words that students mention when they think of insurers. That is different from reality. To tell them the real story, verzekerjetoekomst.nl has been launched. On this platform, young employees of insurers share what their work is really like.
Secure the future, your own and that of others. Plenty of variety and challenge in your work, above-average working conditions and impact on society. That's the world of insurance.
Since the spring of 2022, we have been regularly organising an Insurance Challenge together with our members. Through such a challenge, students get to know insurers and work on solutions for real insurance problems such as the transition to a sustainable society, the responsible use of data or the tight labour market. Each challenge has a theme and takes place at an insurer's location. This gives the students a look behind the scenes of the company, and gives the insurer the opportunity to show how fun and valuable working in this sector is.
Want to know more? You can find more information about the challenges and participation on the Insurance Challenge theme page.
Together with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we are working on a minor in Sustainable Insurance. This minor is part of the Legal Consultancy and Analytics programme. For example, the students who choose this minor delve into what sustainability and sustainable insurance are. The result is an infographic for insurers, with which they can gain more insight and inspiration for their own sustainability ambitions. And that is certainly valuable for smaller insurance companies. At the same time, the students learn more about the insurance sector and the social role that insurers play in the lives of citizens and companies. The minor will start in September 2022.
Sometimes insurers enlist the help of students through the Association. Initiatives and projects usually originate in working groups, platforms and committees of the Association and can cover a variety of topics. Think, for example, of mobility, insurance crime, pensions, sustainable investment, personal injury or privacy. An example of a project in which the help of students has been enlisted is 'The best privacy statement'. All insurers must inform customers about how they handle privacy-sensitive data. Such a privacy statement is often a piece of text, but is there no other way? thought Jos Schaffers, policy adviser Data and Privacy at the Association. He decided to enlist the help of creative students from various colleges. This led to a battle between 8 groups of students who started working on legal design.
Throughout the year, students from colleges and universities visit us to get acquainted with the insurance sector. One of those universities of applied sciences is Hogeschool Zeeland. Every year, a group of students from a financial economics study comes to The Hague and works on a practical case about insurance. And students of the Master's in Liability & Insurance at the University of Amsterdam have also been on company visits for several years in a row. Many students are not familiar with the Association and the insurance sector, but find our field of work very interesting after an introduction.
The Association does not only focus on students, but is also committed to financial education in a broad sense. For example, as a trade association, we are a partner of Money Wise. Part of this partnership is our contribution to Money Week. In this theme week, employees of insurance companies give guest lectures to students of group 7/8. The students are introduced to the basic principles of insurance through the interactive, digital game Fix your Risk. Go to the Financial Education theme page for more information.