The Schools Outreach Committee has done an amazing job in the past year. Though it was impossible to actually visit any of the schools with continuing COVID concerns, members of the Committee managed to do some excellent virtual presentations last semester on Careers in Insurance to all senior high school students. With two professionals ‘linked’ to each school, the presentations that they make are interesting and very informative, so a lot of students are keen to learn more about careers in insurance thereafter.
As previously reported, surveys are taken both before and after presentations and there is a dramatic increase in the number of students expressing an interest following them. Those wanting to learn more were invited to sign up for a series of Lunch & Learns earlier this year though again these obviously had to be offered virtually.
A series of workshop sessions was organized over the course of a week in February, with approximately 20-25 students attending each day. Day 1 was for students interested in Actuarial, Law and IT, with 8 professionals participating who discussed the different subjects with the students in breakout sessions. Day 2 was for those interested in Accounting, again with 8 professionals talking about their careers and giving advice and guidance. Day 3 saw a similar number of professionals answering questions about general insurance-related topics and talking about their jobs. The students appreciated the informal nature of the sessions where they were able to connect one-on-one with professionals.
The Schools Outreach Committee is also responsible for giving presentations on the bermudascholarships.com website to all senior year high school students. They teach the students how to create profiles, research and short-list scholarships, upload documents, etc. They work closely with school counsellors to ensure students have help and guidance as necessary, and also run workshops through the Department of Workforce Development on the subjects of essay writing, nailing interviews, etc. The sessions were necessarily virtual again but as the threat of COVID gradually lessens committee members look forward to making in-person presentations later this year and going forward.