Work-based skills accreditation for employers
Employers can now apply for accreditation so that their in-house appraisal schemes can be used to monitor, assess and sign off their students’ work-based skills.
This follows discussion with employers and other professional bodies, and accredited employers can use their in-house appraisal schemes in place of the scheme of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Accredited employers will be able to use the relevant elements of their own appraisal systems to review and document work-based skills acquisition – therefore removing any duplication of time and effort.
The option of applying for accreditation is open to all employers. The underlying principle behind the accreditation is that the acquisition of, and reflection on, work-based skills should be equivalent to that obtained through the Institute and Faculty's system.
Employers’ processes and methods of recording progress do not need to exactly match those of the Institute and Faculty but the level at which skills are tested and the access to structured training, development and reflection on practice should be the same.
Background information for employers who might want to apply for accreditation has been sent to registered student employer contacts and we hope to accredit the first schemes later in the year. A panel, including volunteers from the membership who have experience of supervising actuarial students, will consider each application and those that are successful will be accredited for up to five years, after which a reaccreditation process will take place.