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 following letter by Dr Geraldine Kaye, MD of GAAPS was published as Letter of the Month in this month’s issue of The Actuary Magazine
Women in the Profession
In response to your invitation for feedback on the introduction of the page dedicated to the profession’s female actuaries, I write as one of the first ever female actuaries to qualify in the UK — I was within the first 20. Times have moved on, or so I had thought.Reading The Actuary magazine and coming across a special page for women in our professional magazine seems demeaning. Non-professional issues are, in my opinion, dealt with perfectly adequately elsewhere. On a professional level, there are no differences between men and women in the actuarial profession. We have taken and passed the same exams.
A page dedicated to female actuaries seems not only superfluous, given today’s heavily legislated business conduct stipulated against gender bias, but comes across as patronising towards achievements from both genders. Surely what is achieved by both male and female actuaries are celebrated on the same page. No doubt, with careful forethought, a note that has been included to encompass male interest, seems to contradict the point of a page dedicated to women in the first place?
This may be a ‘call to action’ page for women to participate in the opportunities increasingly available to them worldwide, but surely a way to address issues and celebrate women in the actuarial profession should not be narrowed down in drawing a deliberate line to differentiate gender achievements in the actuarial industry when we are trying to achieve equality?
G. Kaye
8 September 2011Editor’s comment:
Helen Crofts’ suggestion to have a women’s page in the magazine was widely debated and I sought the views of the editorial advisory panel and other actuaries — male and female. There was no consensus view. The aim of the page was to have a home for resources related to women in business. In the spirit of sharing information that was indicated to be of interest to at least some of the readership, across the gender spectrum, I suggested a trial page with the aim of gauging feedback from readers. I have since received mixed feedback, from males and females alike, and I thank you for taking the time to write in.
Posted in Actuarial Exams, Actuarial Qualifications, Letters, news
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.
Enterprise Risk Management (‘ERM’) is widely recognised as a critical management issue for the Financial Services industry. At the recent SAAX group event, four ERM industry leaders shared their insights on developments in ERM and provide suggestions on how to succeed in a field where there are increasing opportunities for actuaries and risk professionals.
Adrian Baskir introduced the panel which was chaired by Marjorie Ngwenya. The panelists were Paul Sweeting, Jan-Hendrik Erasmus, Malcolm Kemp and Andrew Birrell. There was an interesting and participative discussion with many good questions and contributions from the floor.
Discussion focused on the new CERA qualification. This is a stand-alone internationally recognised qualification and one is eligible for it from Associate level and up.
Three qualities for actuaries are now being highlighted as important ….
In addition, all four panelists strongly suggest that actuarial thinking has much to offer and that actuaries should not be afraid to just plunge in and learn as they go … there is NO ideal career path … they believe one should just do the very best one can in current roles.
Posted in Actuarial Qualifications, Events, Insights, Networking, news, Risk
Tagged Career path, CERA, ERM, Panel discussion, Risk, SAAX
Congratulations to everyone who passed the actuarial exams.
The exam results are published on The Actuarial Profession website .
Posted in Actuarial Exams, news
Tagged actuarial, actuarial exams, congratulations
UK immigration changes which took effect in April 2011 have altered the process for employers looking to sponsor migrants on Tier 2 visas. They are now even more complicated.
So far, in April, May and June 2011 the total number of Certificates approved by the UK Border Agency has been less than the monthly quota. So, this route is a viable one, once the employer is prepared to take the extra step. The fact that the number of sponsorships issued is lower than the number available seems to us to demonstrate how convoluted this process is.
The limit of Tier 2 applications is now set on a monthly basis. In order for a UK employer to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for a new position, an application first needs to be made to the UK Border Agency, once the employer has identified the individual they wish to sponsor.
The UK Border Agency has a set quota of applications it can approve each month. Where the total number of applications in a month exceeds the monthly quota, the UK Border Agency ranks them according to a basic points test on salary and qualifications etc.
Once the employer is given permission to sponsor the migrant, then a Certificate of Sponsorship is issued and the migrant applies for a Tier 2 visa in the normal manner.
There are exceptions to the monthly quota – those being sponsored through Intra Company Transfers, migrants already working in the UK etc.
These changes do not affect migrants looking to work in the UK on Ancestry visas nor Youth Mobility Scheme visas which are now only available to citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.
The Post Study Work visa still exists but it is earmarked to be abolished by
April 2012.
Please note that the general information contained in this post s provided free and for information purposes only. Whilst we believe that the contents of the e-mail are accurate GAAPS doesn’t accept any responsibility for loss arising from reliance upon it. GAAPS does not provide advice on immigration matters. For advice about specific cases you should seek advice from your immigration adviser.
The above information was provided to us by Tim McMahon (the director of Common Wealth Immigration).
Dr Geraldine Kaye was announced as the Chairman designate of The Argonauts at the most recent meeting at The Ivy.
The Argonauts is a dining club open to qualified actuaries practising in non-traditional areas (i.e. areas other than traditional life actuarial or pension actuarial work), such as finance, general insurance, investment management, pension scheme administration and risk management.
Brid Meaney was the actuarial speaker. She is an excellent speaker and spoke about Solvency II, providing insights that even Geraldine had not heard of before.
The non-actuarial guest speaker at the event was Robert Gardener. He gave a fascinating presentation in which he spoke about social networking and explained how it works. He also described how he had developed Mallow Street, a place for the pensions community to connect and share knowledge, into a social network with 1,700 members and one of the most influential voices in the pensions industry.
Posted in Actuarial Sectors, Actuarial Societies, Networking, Pensions, Solvency II, Wider Fields
Tagged actuarial, Actuaries, Argonauts, Dining Club
Actuaries work across diverse industries, from insurance, pensions and benefits, investment and asset management through to banking, healthcare, capital projects and risk. Working individually or as part of a team, you could find yourself being a consultant, analyst, trouble-shooter and risk assessor – all in the same day.
Actuaries use maths and economics every day of their working lives, but they also require good interpersonal skills, as they are in regular contact with clients, senior colleagues, and the staff they manage.
To a certain extent what actuaries do can seem to be shrouded in mystery – watch this entertaining video clip of students at Purdue.
