Blog

The Local Institutes are the foundation of The Insurance Institute. They are a key part of your membership with us, and as a community, represent all that is positive about our industry. They continuously strive to uphold our mission to educate, inspire and connect, but some members don't realise just how beneficial it can be to engage with your local council and how being part of your local community can really help your career.

In the first of our Local Institute Explainer blogs, we give you a quick look at everything you need to know.

Whether you are a fan or not, you would have to have been living on Mars to have not heard the buzz about the latest Game of Thrones (or GoT to its fans) prequel, House of the Dragon. The new HBO Max fantasy drama launches on August 21, 2022, so we thought we would take a llook at what the original, Game of Thrones series taught us about insurance.

 The Insurance Apprenticeship is an earn-and-learn degree programme where participants work in an insurance organisation while studying online one day a week. But what does an apprentice actually do?

If you have a job interview coming up, make sure you’ve prepared answers to common interview questions. While it is likely you’ll be asked more role-specific questions, the below are a great starting point and preparing these answers will help you feel more confident and relaxed going into your interview.

If you’re someone who comes out in a cold sweat when you hear the term ‘networking’, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Many people find it difficult to strike up a conversation at professional events; even more so given the circumstances of the past two years! However, networking and relationship building is a cornerstone of the insurance industry, so avoiding it will mean you could miss out on some valuable career opportunities. Here are our top tips for getting back out there.

Career blogs and social media feeds are excellent resources for advice, inspiration, recruitment tips and leadership techniques. We’ve rounded up our 9 favourites for you below.

Last year, The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, outlined its Action Plan for Apprenticeship – a five-year plan which seeks to deliver a modern apprenticeship system that is reflective of Irish society and supports both learners and employers. As part of this, a new National Apprenticeship Office has been set up, so we interviewed Dr. Mary Liz Trant, its Director about the new office, her plans for the year ahead and what she expects the apprenticeship landscape might look like in the next five years.

Commitment and leadership are required in equal measure if you are to be an apprentice employer. It takes the dedication of an entire organisation to make the apprenticeship programme work well, but of course, there is one role that is the most significant – and that’s the apprentice’s Supervisor.

At The Insurance Institute, we place an enormous value on recognition and we feel it’s hugely important to recognise and celebrate achievements.

The Apprenticeship Recognition Awards is one such example of this. The awards, which place every December, are devoted to celebrating success amongst apprentice graduates, but also employers – particularly Supervisors who have gone over and above what’s required and who have had a significant impact on the apprentices and their development.

Chloe Davis says that no two days are ever the same and as an Insurance Practitioner Apprentice, she loves the variety her job with Hegarty Financial Management provides – here she tells us more about what being an apprentice is like and what her typical day at the office consists of.