Unlike law or accounting, insurance doesn’t require people to hold any specific professional qualifications to work in the field. Does that need to change?

Lawyers and accountants have clear, formal pathways into their professions: a combination of university study, work experience, profession-specific qualifications and ongoing professional development requirements.

Not so, for insurance. While Charles Sturt University in Australia still offers a three-year commerce degree with a major in insurance, it’s the exception in the Australian and New Zealand market. For the most part, people who enter the industry aren’t required to — and don’t — hold any insurance-specific qualifications.

Does insurance need a formal qualification, or has the modern educational model moved on?

Should insurance be a profession?

Gary Gribbin is non-executive chairman of Insurance Brands Australia and other companies, ­­and an experienced insurance educator.

He says: “My frank view is that a three-year degree is the minimum that ought to be required.

“If we really want to professionalise insurance, entrants need a combination of a broad general education, topped off by appropriately rigorous vocational education. That is one of the hallmarks of a profession.”

In addition to minimum standards of entry, Gribbin says the industry is missing the notion of genuine continuing professional development, as well as public and professional service — the equivalent of the pro bono work people in the legal and accounting professions undertake.

However, he questions whether insurance really should be aiming to be a profession at all.

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