Lloyd's Market Association to target students through roadshows and career officers
The Lloyd's market is set to embark on its first graduate recruitment programme aimed at attracting university leavers into the industry.
The scheme, which is being led by the Lloyd's Market Association's (LMA) professional standards committee, is expected to begin at the end of this summer.
David Gittings, chairman of the committee and head of risk at Lloyd's insurer Wellington, told Insurance Times: "[The LMA] was conscious that the insurance industry, generally speaking, had received quite a bad press as far as undergraduates were concerned, so we thought we would do something to address that.
"We are not trying in any way to establish some sort of centralised graduate programme in the market. It is just about raising the profile of Lloyd's in the minds of the student community."
The programme, which will target universities that offer related degrees, will enable students to access graduate recruitment information from participating managing agents via Lloyds.com and the LMA's website.
The committee also intends to increase the market's exposure at undergraduate roadshows and in graduate literature, as well as liaising with career officers.
Consultations with the market have so far produced an "overwhelming" degree of support, said Gittings. More than half of managing agencies, representing three quarters of the market's capacity, have agreed to participate.
Gittings said: "Some of the individual managing agencies already have their own graduate recruitment schemes in place, such as Kiln, Brit and Wellington, who all take on a certain amount of graduates each year.
"But this is the first time that the market as a whole has worked together on an initiative such as this."
