Following the impact of statutory regulation research from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) a third of brokers quizzed identified technical training as the biggest talent shortage in the industry ahead of personal skills, IT and management skills.
However, despite concerns about training requirements following FSA regulation, two out of five brokers do not have a training plan in place and a third do not arrange any training.
Just over half have a training budget to work from and two-thirds of those who have money to spend on training have a budget of less than £10,000, BIBA’s research shows.
BIBA’s training co-coordinator Julie Saunders said: "We asked a random selection of members to tell us about their attitudes to training and received an excellent response.
"It is definitely the case that training is the hot industry topic currently and that statutory regulation has been a major incentive to make sure employees meet the required standards.
"Brokers in the know will acknowledge that a commitment to training pays off. Training ensures brokers have employees who are more productive, better motivated and find their work satisfying."
Nearly 90 per cent of brokers questioned say their training requirements have increased since FSA regulation and 80 per cent encourage their staff to take Chartered Insurance Institute examinations. More than half have some form of management training in place.
Brokers who do make use of training services are happy with the service they receive — around 90 per cent rate the training from BIBA and the CII as good or excellent while 70 per cent say training offered from insurers is good or excellent.
BIBA and the CII launched their joint brokerASSESS training and competency system in August 2003 with compliance experts RW Associates. More than 10,000 licences have been issued and last month it received the Training Award at the prestigious British Insurance Awards.
