Forum set to be platform for education progress

The Federation of European Risk Management Association’s (Ferma) 2011 Risk Forum taking place from 2–5 October in Stockholm, Sweden provides a further chance for the risk community to further the skills of risk professionals and take advantage of the current fair winds.

Ferma regards the promotion of education in risk management as an essential part of its role and will use the Forum to help students and newly qualified risk managers to attend the event as well as take advantage of opportunities for more training.

At the biannual gathering of Europe’s risk community, which the association says will attract over 1000 risk professionals from its 17 member countries and further afield, Ferma will also provide learning opportunities for more experienced practitioners.

hide

At Ferma, Edouard Thys is Director of Education. We spoke to him about the various education and learning initiatives taking place at the Forum and why he believes that risk management education programmes, with the support of Ferma at European level, should be organised at national level to give a more local grounding in risk practices and legislative environments.

There are three main education programmes taking place at the Forum aimed at risk professionals of varying experience—from those newly qualified to those with more experience.

As at every Forum, each Ferma member association has selected one student at the end of his or her studies to attend the event free of charge.

Mr Thys will act as a mentor to the chosen candidates during the event and give them the chance to meet more experienced risk managers as well as other notable industry insiders.

These are young people who have been recently recruited to risk management, usually with less than two years’ experience.

‘I can open doors for them and point them in the right direction,” explained Mr Thys. “It is a great opportunity for them to get their foot in the door.”

Ace is running a competition for Swedish students to find the best thesis on the subject of risk management. Students, mostly from the Stockholm School of Economics, have submitted their papers and the winner will be announced on Monday 3 October at the Forum’s plenary session. Ferma will then publish the best thesis.

Lloyd’s will also launch a professional development initiative at the event. This is open to all risk management professionals regardless of age, but predominantly aimed at active young professionals with at least three years experience in risk management.

Successful applicants will be invited by Lloyd’s to attend two-day training sessions in London during April and October of 2012 and April 2013.

Although the final programme is not yet finalised, these sessions will include presentations on the history of Lloyd’s and how to access the Lloyd’s market. They will also cover a broad range of topics ranging from international regulation, international markets, loss control and claims handling to emerging risks.

There are about 20 places up for grabs with the selected candidates announced during the Forum. The process is not yet complete and those wishing to apply can do so through their national risk management associations or, if they are from a non-Ferma member country, directly through the European association.

“People can still apply for this—even during the Forum,” said Mr Thys. “For example, a risk manager might think this would be interesting for one of his assistants and they can still get them to apply.”

A further initiative is the young professional’s network. Set up by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, with the support of Ferma, it is hoped that the network will serve as a platform for risk professionals up to the age of 35 to meet their peers and exchange experiences.

It is being launched at the breakfast for young professionals on Tuesday 4 October and offers professional development opportunities.

“It is a social media network. The idea is to invite or nominate one risk manager per country who will come and explain how he or she built up their career. For example, the problems faced and how they were overcome,” explained Mr Thys.

It is hoped that once the network of young risk managers is established it will attract other young risk professionals to seek advice and share experiences.

Ferma is also providing breakfast education sessions on the Wednesday morning of the Forum aimed at all risk professionals and other attendees.

Topics covered will include political and economic risk in the global marketplace, risk related to major infrastructure projects in Europe and new technologies. Those wishing to attend simply need to pre-register.

On Ferma’s wider education plans Mr Thys said that the association will continue to support local education and training programmes, often set up by national associations, but does not plan to organise its own set of training. He believes that to create an education scheme at pan-European level would be problematical and fail to take into account the differing operating environments across European member states.

“We have never organised education or training programmes ourselves, rather we look at programmes developed by national associations, industry and academic partners and support those. We do not put Ferma’s name to these programmes and I do not think our intention is to change that policy,” said Mr Thys. Pan-European education schemes have been tried in the past and not succeeded, he said, adding that local knowledge producing localised educational offerings work best.

“Personally I see difficulties in making a uniform type of education programme. What risk managers do in Germany is not what they do in the UK or in Spain…It would be very difficult to put together. This is because you have a number of regulations and legislations, so we prefer to leave the initiative to the local associations,” he said.

Appointed by the Ferma board in May 2006, Mr Thys was previously Risk Manager for Europe at regional and business aircraft manufacturer Bombardier.

He pointed out that when he was a practicing risk manager he controlled risk management programmes in 12 European countries, and whilst he was dealing with global insurance programmes he purposely tried not to impose a global view on each country.

“That is my view and I will defend it within Ferma, but we will of course work with national associations to spread news of their courses and support where we can,” he added.

Ferma do contribute to education events and initiatives organised by national associations and other organisations by sending experts to speak on specific topics.

“So we are included in the programmes. We bring our knowledge and exchange information in the name of Ferma,” he concluded.