Insurance firms Canopius and Brit Insurance have thrown their weight behind an online mentoring initiative that seeks to combat Britain’s widening skills gap and outdated recruitment market.

Under the “Connect Mentors” online platform, mentors from some of Britain’s leading organisations will be matched with “mentees” from marginalised or “unconnected” backgrounds, a joint statement from both firms said.

Founding partners include We Are The City, UCL, City Gateway, Develop Her, The Precious Awards, University of Roehampton, Generation Success and Inspirational You.

The platform’s algorithm matches mentees to mentors via areas of mutual interest, with mentees choosing their preferred mentors.

“Making the Lloyd’s community a more diverse place to work is hugely important to us as we look to reach out to previously untapped pools of talent,” said Derek Hansen, head of direct & facultative insurance at Canopius.

“There has been much effort expended identifying a lack of diversity in insurance but not enough action on programmes that can actually make a difference. We believe Connect Mentors can be one of many tools we use to bridge this divide, and we look forward to offering advice and support to the mentees,” he added.

In their joint statement, both firms said Britain may face a “serious” labour problem – more than 600,000 experienced employees reach retirement age every year, and there are currently 695,000 (ONS) job vacancies, up from the 2012’s 438,000. Citing figures from Randstad, they said there is an anticipated employment shortfall of 3.1 million by 2050.


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