The importance of ongoing E&S insurance career development
The Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association's Education Committee recently improved and revamped several of its programs.
The Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA) offers nine education programs each year.
After moving to various online and hybrid formats for many of those during the last two years, all of them are back to in-person delivery in 2022. The programs are as varied as WSIA members. They are designed to meet the needs of surplus lines professionals at various career levels and in a variety of roles, beginning with the introductory Excess & Surplus Lines program, through the capstone, Executive Leadership Summit.
While the WSIA Education Committee, and attendees, have welcomed a return to on-site programs, the committee has also been busy improving and revamping several of those existing programs. Collaborative Selling and Negotiations and Leader as Coach have been retooled with new facilitators, fresh content, and new ideas. The predecessors to these programs were highly rated, but the committee used feedback from past participants to restyle them to better target the interests and needs of future participants.
“I am proud of the effort from WSIA in continuing to prioritize professional development,” said Danny Kaufman, WSIA Educational Committee Chair and President, Burns & Wilcox. “The two programs now deliver more useful content that can be immediately applied to real world scenarios. Participants who have previously taken these courses are encouraged to register again, capitalizing on the new perspectives and insights that will be shared.”
Collaborative Selling and Negotiations is a one-and-a-half-day program in October. This program focuses on how to enhance and refine your customer relationship skills. The new facilitator, Amy Reczek, will help participants find and implement win-win solutions and techniques to improve negotiation skills. Participants can expect to leave with a customized action plan for creating lifelong relationships with clients.
Leader as Coach is a one-day program that will take place in November. This program provides customized training to build coaching skills and enhance leadership techniques. Participants of the class will be provided with a personalized personality assessment to show their strengths, habits and how to improve specific areas to guide their team.
“The programs focus on the importance of communications to build more engaging and impactful client conversations,” added Kaufman. “We are offering a unique opportunity for brokers and underwriters to expand their skill set, which will result in improved relationships and ultimately greater productivity.”
WSIA’s Director of Operations Julie Fritz also emphasized the enormous opportunity for members from all sizes and types of firms to participate in WSIA education programs through the generosity of the WSIA Education Foundation. The foundation awards scholarships to employees of firms comprising the largest segment of the WSIA membership to attend selected programs at no charge. Through August, the Foundation has awarded 25 scholarships for WSIA members during 2022, with a total value of $51,225.
“We are very grateful to the Education Foundation for recognizing the need to support regional firms with these scholarship opportunities, said Kaufman. “It’s very beneficial for people to receive the personalized instruction that our facilitators offer through our programs, and the networking piece of the programs is a great added value, particularly for members who might not otherwise be able to participate in programs like these.”
For more information about all the upcoming E&S insurance education programs offered through WSIA, visit www.wsia.org.
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