Like in many industries continuing education and skills upgrades are crucial to being the best. The insurance industry is no exception.
“In our ever evolving industry, continuing education is vital for all of the industry, but especially for brokers who need to meet the current and future needs of their customers,” says Dawna Matton, Senior Director of the Insurance Institute of Ontario. “They must always be ahead of the curve with their knowledge of innovations in products and services.”
When it comes to insurance, it can be a daunting challenge to continually upgrade your skills while climbing the corporate ladder to become partner. But
RSA Canada does have a program in place to help you on your way.
RSA’s Making Partner Program is based on the substantial experience of Queen’s School of Business in Executive Education. The program is in its 9
th year and has an impressive track record of developing and delivering programs focused on solid enterprise leadership skills.
Dr. Salman Mufti, the Associate Dean of Executive Education at Queen’s School of Business, explains some of the benefits of the program.
“The RSA Making Partner program is an exclusive broker education initiative delivered by Queen’s Executive Education. The program was designed to provide customized leadership and business skills to RSA brokers with a high potential for senior management and who aspire to ‘make partner’ one day in their brokerages,” says Dr. Mufti.
The program encompasses a week-long, customized executive education course hosted at Queen’s, a mentorship and networking program and sponsorship to attend an industry conference.
“Graduates of the program have reported that the benefits of the program are immediately applicable to their businesses, such as how to provide lasting and meaningful value to customers – which translates into results on the bottom line,” he says. “Participants also learn long-term skills to help them successfully grow their brokerage within an increasingly competitive business environment.”
What makes ‘Making Partner unique is that it is a customized advanced executive education program for brokers, which utilizes the latest in business peer networking techniques.
“Participants learn from the best faculty who draw on the latest in business thought leadership and a variety of teaching methods from in-class discussions and group activities to experiential exercises and peer-to-peer networking,” says Dr. Mufti. “This highly rated program helps senior leaders understand complex ideas and develop a common understanding and approach in applying tools that make real difference to the performance of their brokerage.”
The program touches on four major themes: strategy, customer value, leadership and managerial decision making.
The program is taught through a mixture of classroom discussion, group activities, experiential exercises and participant interaction. This format is a powerful way to help senior leaders understand complex ideas and, most importantly, develop a common understanding and approach to applying theories and tools in order to make a real difference in the performance of their brokerage.
For Dr. Mufti, the importance of the Making Partner program can be measured by the increased employee engagement and positive corporate culture allowing managers to thrive.
“For individual participants, research has shown that investing in executive education not only augments the credentials on participants’ resumes, but also helps maintain momentum in their career trajectories – especially if other incentives are not available in their role or within brokerage,” says Dr. Mufti. “The Making Partner education program invigorates and reenergizes participants – keeping them apprised of best practices in strategy, leadership and networking – to prepare them to put the best foot forward.”
This will be the 9
th installment of the Making Partner program and applications are now being accepted. The deadline to apply is March 30.
For more details on the program, visit
http://www.rsabroker.ca/rsa-advantage/education-training/making-partner
