Brokers aged 18 to 29 now represent just 11% of Australia’s general insurance broking workforce – the same share as those aged 60 and over, and the smallest of any age cohort in the profession. It is the sharpest single indicator of where the industry’s talent pipeline is under the most pressure, and it is the context in which Steadfast Group’s 2027 Graduate Program announcement lands. Steadfast opened applications on July 20, 2026, for its 2027 intake, with a closing date of August 21, 2026. The program is open to recent university graduates and final-year students. Taken in isolation, it is a routine recruitment announcement. Placed against current workforce data for the broking profession, it is something more specific.
The National Insurance Brokers Association of Australia’s (NIBA) June 2026 report, Data to Direction: Insights from the General Insurance Broking Profession, found that brokers aged 18 to 29 represent the same share of the profession as those aged 60 and over – both at 11% – with the two largest cohorts being brokers aged 40 to 49 at 31% and 30 to 39 at 28%, and a workforce median age of 44. The report was produced in partnership with Allianz Australia, using CoreData research from 418 brokers alongside Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data. It found that nearly half of all general insurance written in Australia – $35.6 billion of a total market valued at $77.9 billion – passed through brokers in the year to June 30, 2025, with the broker-placed segment growing at a compound annual rate of 6.1% over the prior decade.
That combination – a growing channel intermediating roughly half the market, with its smallest age cohort at entry level – defines the structural problem. The Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) Insurance Industry Talent Roadmap estimates that 30% of the current insurance workforce is set to reach or exceed retirement age by 2030. According to Gallagher Bassett’s 2026 Carrier Perspective whitepaper, 74% of Australian insurers report difficulty finding qualified candidates, while 76% are experiencing shortages in claims management roles. Talent attraction and retention ranked as the third-highest business challenge facing Australian insurers in 2026, behind premium affordability and insurability and data and cybersecurity.
Among Australia’s largest insurance sector operators, structured graduate programs have become one measurable response to that pressure. But the approaches differ materially, and a significant gap exists at the broker network level. The Steadfast Graduate Program has been running since 2017 and was a finalist in the HR Awards in 2021. It is a 12-month program built around four rotations across insurance broking, underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, technology, and finance, with a capstone project presented to the executive leadership team. The 2026 intake offered compensation between $70,000 and $80,000 per year, with full-time hybrid roles based from the Sydney office.
IAG runs an 18-month program, with applications for the 2027 intake opening March 2, 2026. Graduates receive structured learning support through IAG’s Learning Academy alongside online platforms and participate in a mentoring and buddy program. Suncorp operates the longest program among the three. Its two-year Graduate Program runs six-monthly rotations within its Consumer Insurance business across claims, distribution, and portfolio management, with one elective rotation. The 2026 intake drew over 10,000 applications for 46 graduate positions.
Steadfast’s closest structural peer in the broker network segment, AUB Group, does not operate a publicly documented equivalent program at the group level. Individual member firms within the AUB network may run their own development initiatives, but no centralised graduate scheme is publicly available for the 2026 or 2027 intake period, based on a review of AUB Group’s careers page and public announcements.
That gap matters in context. Industry analysis has flagged that the relatively small size of many brokerage firms makes attracting the right staff a particular challenge – a constraint that applies to most of the broker market by firm count, regardless of network affiliation. Steadfast’s centralised program represents one structural mechanism through which network scale is converted into a graduate recruitment capability that most standalone brokerages cannot replicate.
Steadfast – whose network places over $25 billion in gross written premium annually across broker and agency operations in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the US – frames the program around breadth of exposure and direct access to senior leadership. CEO Robert Kelly AM said the rotation model is designed to help participants find where their interests lie. “The Steadfast Graduate Program gives graduates the opportunity to shape their own path while gaining exposure to a diverse and dynamic industry. Our graduates aren’t observing our industry; they are contributing fresh thinking and practical solutions that improve our business,” Kelly said.
In response to its own pipeline data, NIBA will introduce a dedicated young professionals program at its October 2026 convention — the first early-career track in the event’s history – with a masterclass facilitated by past Young Broker of the Year award winners. That initiative – alongside programs from Steadfast, IAG, and Suncorp – forms part of an industry-wide effort to address a structural workforce problem. With about 30% of the industry’s professionals expected to retire within five years, the smallest brokerages are bearing the brunt, unable to compete with larger networks for a dwindling pool of early-career candidates. What the data does not yet show is whether the combined scale of current initiatives – spread across large operators and industry bodies – is sufficient to move the 11% figure before the retirement wave arrives. Applications for the 2027 Steadfast Graduate Program close August 21, 2026.
