A partnership between Ohio’s insurers and nine colleges and universities in the state has successfully addressed a “talent gap” in the region’s insurance industry, a report on claimsjournal.com detailed.
Ohio’s insurance industry employs more than 100,000 locals and contributes billions of dollars to the state’s gross domestic product.
In 2012, not a single Ohio college graduate received a degree in insurance. As a stopgap measure, the industry hired graduates from related disciplines and even turned outside the state to recruit graduates from other universities.
Not long after the dearth in potential insurance recruits, the Insurance Industry Resource Council (IIRC) released a study in 2013 that suggested that Ohio should add 26,000 new workers by 2020 in the property and casualty segment, as well as the life and health segments, if the state wants to avoid a substantial talent gap in the industry.
Ohio’s insurers realized then that if they wanted to close the talent gap, they would have to implement degree and certificate programs among the region’s colleges and universities.
It was following this assessment that the Insuring Ohio Futures program was created by the industry. Previously, there were similar programs in place that encouraged students to take insurance-related disciplines, but they failed to continue as students lost interest.
“If you go back a generation, there were robust insurance programs at a number of Ohio colleges, but slowly the program enrollment eroded and students migrated toward other options. Neither the industry nor the colleges realized the long-term effect of those program’s demise,” said The Motorists Insurance Group CEO and IIRC co-chair Dave
Kaufman. “We began the Insuring Ohio Futures program to raise awareness and attract talent to the insurance industry and we realized that establishing multiple educational options was the long-term answer to bridge this talent gap. Individuals with an educational background in insurance and risk management will be talent equipped for success. Establishing these educational programs was critical, and it couldn’t have happened without tremendous partners.”
Reestablishing an insurance program, Ohio’s insurance industry struck a partnership with nine colleges in the region that would offer insurance education: Kent State University, University of Cincinnati, Franklin University, Ohio Dominican University, Ohio Northern University, Columbus State Community College, Bowling Green State University, Clark State Community College, and Owens Community College.
Currently between the nine colleges, 216 students have enrolled under the program—more than double the number of students signed to the program the previous year and a more-than 450% increase since the spring of the 2014 academic year.
