Graduate video transcript

Life on our graduate programme
Opportunites in the insuranace sector
The structure of the programme
Developing your skills and experience
Our graduate stories

Life on our graduate programme

RSA is one of the world’s largest multinational groups. It’s got its presence in 32 countries. I am from China and now RSA is going to explore the market in China and there are lots of opportunities in the future.
I graduated from industrial engineering in the Catholic University of Buenos Aires. RSA offered me the opportunity to work in a big multinational company on a global program.
Meeting people that say, I’m working in this division, I’m from Argentina. It really brings home how big our company actually is.
Insurance business is one of the most dynamic businesses in the world, and here you get a real global company that will give you personal development and a great opportunity to expand your career.
Insurance is an essential hub of the whole economy, and yes cars need insuring and personal houses need insuring, but all these big buildings like the Tower of London, like the Houses of Parliament also need insuring too.
The Cutty Sark goes up in flames, we covered that, we covered the Napoli that beached on Devon and we covered the Titanic, not that I was on that claim!
Everyday is different and you are dealing with catastrophes and it’s more exciting than you might think.

Opportunites in the insuranace sector

Graduates should be attracted to RSA, because if you look at what we’re doing, we’re out there helping people. The insurance industry is a really exciting place to work.
There are lots of opportunities in insurance, because it has got underwriting, actuarial and claims.
It’s important for RSA to have graduates and we’re building our pipeline for the future. They're young, they're dynamic, they bring in new ideas and we want to train them up to be those technical leaders.
I was pretty interested in being in the financial sector. With insurance you are giving a service back to the people who are actually buying a policy from you.
I worked for RSA previously. I went into the Motor Claims division and then I got myself a mentor at work and they put me forward for the graduate scheme, and that’s how I got in here.
We don’t just recruit graduates with maths or actuarial backgrounds, we also recruit graduates from a law background, geography, biology, so you can see we’re interested individuals not just their qualifications.
It’s a very diverse industry, there are lots of different jobs that you can get, lots of different skills to use that I had from university, but wouldn’t necessarily have applied to the insurance industry.
RSA is a great place to work if you want to rise up the ladder quickly. If you have got the ability and the drive, you’ll find heaps of support to both develop your personal leadership style and to develop your technical capability alongside each other, so that you can get into senior positions.

The structure of the programme

When you join us on the graduate programme, we have a structured induction program which is a global programme, where everybody gets together and it’s a really great experience in terms of networking, meeting people from the executive team right down to our previous graduates.
The lecturers are really, really interesting. We are learning a lot of the job we will be doing in the future. We also have the opportunity of developing our personal skills. We get to work in different groups and we get together to manage and see what types of persons we are.
RSA graduate program provides me with the unique opportunity to have a rotation across different business lines. For example; like motor insurance and also across different departments, for example, underwriting, claims and actuarial.

Developing your skills and experience

RSA’s technical academy was set up in 2006 with the aim of improving the company’s technical capability in the areas of underwriting, claims and actuarial to help us with our aim of sustainable, profitable growth. The technical academy will provide materials to help you understand which career you might want to aim for, how you get there, what training you need, what experience you need to have.
One of the things we really focus on with our actuarial trainees is getting through the exams.
You’ve got support to gain a professional qualification in the form of ACII, so I am very grateful for that and I am happy with my choice.

Our graduate stories

I did politics at university with a bit of business, but decided I wanted to come to London and further a career in financial services.
You're really encouraged to go and see different areas, because the more areas you see, the more you add to the business and the better view that you’ve got of what RSA does.
The induction is not all hard work and neither is the two year training programme. There are lots of social events and networking gatherings. So there's lots of fun and excitement and I know there's lots of socialising that goes on.
One of the advantages with this programme is that we get to meet leaders or managers in the social setting, instead of only a business one.
I never expected to be an underwriter when I was growing up, but I am glad that I have chosen this job and this career because it’s worked out really well for me so far.
I wouldn’t change the choice that I made to come and work here for anything. I have enjoyed myself so much, I’ve learnt so much. I just can’t imagine working in any other industry now or for any other company really.
RSA really cares about their employees and they're really focused on people. So they're investing a lot in our development and they’ve got a really well laid out plan to make sure we get a well rounded view of the business, but also a well rounded view of ourselves and we get to drive our own career.
The grad scheme provides the opportunity, and you’ve got to drive that opportunity and you’ve got to push to succeed. If you have that, then I think you can go very far in this organisation.
Go be assessed, there were lots of people being interviewed and finally I got the job, it was great.
Go for it, I would say.