Good Morning everyone and first of all Happy 2012 to each one of you!!
Here at GAAPS we kicked off the New Year with a lot of enthusiasm… one of the many reasons being because our Australian branch Executive Director, Mr Tony Snoyman, got an entire page in the Actuary magazine!
I guess you’ve always wondered who are the faces behind the GAAPS brand and who are the people working at GAAPS desks…
Well, here you have the chance to find out more about our fantastic team!
A meeting was held for CPD Co-ordinators to introduce the new way of examining professionalism for actuaries. Initially only those who join the Institute after May 2012 will be subject to the new exam and those within 6 years of joining or who qualify whichever is first. No decision has been made about how to examine experienced fellows.
As this years chairman of the Argonauts Actuarial dining Club, I am delighted our concerns (and lobbying) have been taken into account. Having an online exam takes away the requirement for those not in traditional actuarial employment to take a days holiday to sit an exam. It will also Im sure be welcomed by those in traditional organisations that the exam can now be taken in what would otherwise be wasted time such as waiting at airports.
The on-line exam has had input on the technical side from Leeds University’s ethics dept.
Going forward I would like to see more emphasis in the other exams and tutoring on the long term consequences of decisions-especially those in the public interest. Traditionally actuaries dealt with pensions and life assurance which automatically made them think of long-term consequences-now that they have moved into wider fields more emphasis must be brought to bear on this during their training.
Dr. Geraldine Kaye
The team at Heriot Watt once again did GAAPS Actuarial proud helping to organise yet another fantastic event for future actuaries.
Over the day hundreds of actuarial and mathematics students busied themselves at the fair, where they were able to interact with perspective future employers, and come to the GAAPS stand to find out how we can help them progress through their chosen careers. We had fantastic feedback on the day from both students and employers; and one very delighted student won a Sony Bloggy from us!
So whether you are a candidate already at Heriot Watt, or thinking of making the move; or an employer who would like to join us at next years event please get in touch!
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Posted in Careers Events, Conferences, Heriot Watt University, UK
As we expected this event was amazing!
Professor Robert Bor proved to be an engaging speaker and he provided an interesting view on the transition to work and life in the UK, with a focus on managing diversity and sustaining relationships in business and personal context.
All that has been accompanied by very nice people and good South African wine and food… which made this night even more fun!
A special thanks also to Mr. Adrian Baskir, for such a lovely introduction.
GAAPS Actuarial is proud to have been sponsor of this wonderful event, which has been a good stimulus for reflection for each one of us!
If you would like to find out more about the event, please click here
Posted in Actuarial Society of South Africa, Events, news, South Africa, UK
Tagged Robert Bor, SAAX, work-life balance
Mrs Sophie Sicard, one of our top consultants in the French market, was recently interviewed by L’Agefi, a famous business and financial newspaper, highly appreciated among citizens of the “Pays des Lumiѐres”.
Sophie explains the importance of actuarial skills, which have become more and more appreciated not only within assurance companies but also in Investment Banking.
Actuaries solve practical problems. Certainly, some of them are essentially connected to insurance. However, they are more and more requested in the resolution of problems related to finance, in particular in the trading rooms’ risk management. Especially with increasing complexity of financial products it is necessary to take into account a largest number of risks, in a very rigorous, coherent and transparent way.
A few years ago, the investment department would have been considered the best place to work. Lately, actuarial skills have become essential in risk management, as well as in financial engineering. In addition, with the introduction of Basel II, a huge range of new opportunities have come up.
But “Just having a sound set of technical skills is not enough” -said Sophie- “They also need to develop other types of soft skills. Communication skills, ability to liaise effectively at all levels and managing team are also very important “. Being able to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical people in an easy to understand language is a crucial aspect to succeed in this profession.
If you would like to find out more about the original interview (in French), click on this link: Full article. There is an approximate translation into English here.
Posted in France, Life, news, Property and Casualty / Non-Life / General, Risk, Wider Fields
Tagged L’Agefi
GAAPS is sponsoring this evening’s SAAX Group Event for South African actuaries in the UK.
Dr Geraldine Kaye, MD of GAAPS will be introducing Professor Robert Bor who will provide a fascinating and entertaining perspective on managing the transition to work and life in the UK.
A prize will be presented for the best question asked and as always, the talk will be followed by good food, great South African wine and quality networking with fellow Southern Africans.
Full details can be found on the SAAX group website.
Actuaries have recently been added to the UK Shortage Occupation List. It is highly unlikely that there will be any major change in level of salaries as a result. It will still be extremely difficult to sponsor a work permit for someone – this only overcomes the first hurdle.
However there are two great PR advantages;
Posted in Immigration, Insights, news, UK
Tagged Actuary, salary, Shortage Occupation Lists
As you may be aware, GAAPS Actuarial has been petitioning for the government to include actuaries on the shortage occupation list since 2006, and it looks like our hard work and those of other organisations involved have finally paid off!
The new guidelines in the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recognised the increasing pressure of the industry’s changing needs and have placed actuaries on its occupation shortage list.
Actuaries are included on the list as “Qualified actuaries working in the life assurance, general insurance and health and care sectors”, explaining the previous information provided by MAC regarding specific sectors. This would appear to exclude actuaries in the pensions and investment sectors. However, we will seek to clarify this information and we will publish a further post once we have a better understanding.
The revised list will come into effect from 14 November 2011. This means that:
Employers can only bring someone into the UK under Tier 2 if the job is on the shortage occupation list, or if they pass a resident labour market test (i.e. no suitable resident workers apply after advertising the job in the UK first for 4 weeks).
The Government has just published a 243 page document providing a full review of the recommended shortage occupation lists for the UK and Scotland.
Chapter 7 gives The recommended UK shortage occupation list and Page 207 lists:
Qualified actuary working in the life assurance, general insurance, and health and care sectors, etc;
Please be aware that The Professions definition of Qualified Actuaries includes Associates as well as Fellows.
As you can see the listing is ambigous in the use of the word – “etc”.
Updates will be posted to The GAAPS Blog once matters are clarified.
About 1000 actuaries and actuarial students are attending the Joint Regional Seminar on Economic Capital.
Yesterday I attended the Bangkok arm. It was lively, well organised, useful and interesting.
The president of the Society of Actuaries gave an introductory speech and it emerges that 25% of the American Society at Associate level and below reside in Asia. I also loved his definition of what differentiates actuaries from others. “When we provide a number. We give it a context that’s what makes us special”
One of the best speakers of the day was a Thai gentleman named Sutee who said “he wanted to be measured by how people felt after his presentation.” Well I for one felt stimulated to learn more about economic capital and that at last I truly understood all the jargon surrounding it.
The final presentation was by Mark Saunders It was by far the best presentation on presentation skills I have ever heard – and I’ve been to many.
