A strong profession
Career-long learning and professional development
Supporting our members as they embark on their journey from student to qualified actuary and beyond is a priority for the IFoA. We are making sure that all of our members can grow, develop, and thrive throughout their actuarial careers.
Learning and career-long learning
Supporting members with the learning journey to qualification and beyond
To ensure that our education offering is current and appropriate, we conducted an annual review of our syllabus content. We delivered over 31,000 online exams to over 20,000 students globally. We also enabled candidates requiring additional support to take our exams with over 600 access arrangements in place.
We work hard to protect the integrity of our qualifications. We conducted an extensive post-examination review of all candidate scripts with just 1.4% identified for sanction due to inappropriate examination conduct.
We engaged two new tuition providers offering support for the CS, CM, CB, and CP2 exams. We reviewed our climate risk programme and introduced a new module in investment. Planning is underway to curate our career-long learning offering for easier member access.
Considerable resources were invested in our formal learning offer, both internally and externally, to investigate and test potential new services for our members. That was all with the aim of delivering an enhanced learning and assessment experience. We are very grateful to members who participated in testing a potential new examination platform during 2023. Your input helped us to re-evaluate our examination delivery needs for the future.
We also worked closely with our examiners to prepare them for the rapidly developing AI technologies that will play an important part of the assessment of a candidate’s professional competencies.
Gunavanth Duremanthi
IFoA student member
Pursuing the IFoA qualification has been both an enriching and rewarding experience. The comprehensive curriculum coupled with the support and resources provided by the IFoA have been instrumental in my professional development. The challenge of mastering complex actuarial concepts is balanced by the satisfaction of applying these skills to real-world problems. The sense of community among fellow candidates and the access to a network of experienced professionals has been particularly helpful, fostering a collaborative environment that encourages learning and growth.
University of Lagos achieves IFoA accreditation
Supporting the growth and development of the actuarial profession
The University of Lagos (UNILAG) achieved IFoA accreditation for its Postgraduate Master of Science in Actuarial Science. This will provide successful students with 6 exemptions from the IFoA qualification. UNILAG offers one of the oldest and most respected actuarial programmes in Nigeria, developed in partnership with the Nigerian Actuarial Society. All three organisations worked closely together to provide this pathway to IFoA qualification.
UNILAG is the first university to go through and obtain the accreditation process in West Africa, as well as the second university currently accredited in Africa. This accreditation will support the growth and development of the actuarial profession across Nigeria. The country has a fast-growing finance and insurance market and the high demand for qualified actuaries already outstrips supply.
Professor Abraham Osinubi
Dean School of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Lagos
I am pleased that the University of Lagos has secured the IFoA accreditation for the Master of Science Programme in Actuarial Science. This is coming particularly after a series of engagements with all stakeholders aimed at reinforcing UNILAG as a centre of excellence in actuarial education. This accreditation is in tandem with our agenda of producing a future ready and fit-for-purpose workforce.
New qualifier events
Recognising the achievements of our newly qualified members
It is important to celebrate the achievement of our members as they reach the key milestone of qualification. In a variety of locations around the world, more than 400 new qualifiers attended qualifier events.
We held ceremonies in the UK, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya, and South Africa, with 127 attending in New Delhi and 216 in London alone. The path to qualification is a significant challenge. Our qualifiers can be proud of how hard they have worked, over several years, to reach this major milestone in their actuarial career.
Mohammed Khassawneh
IFoA Associate member
I joined the IFoA to develop myself professionally and I have worked hard to achieve my associate designation. I really enjoyed celebrating this achievement with so many other IFoA members at this qualifiers event. I am currently continuing my exams to acquire IFoA Fellowship.
Employer engagement
Understanding employer needs and how best to support our members
We talked extensively with 23 of the UK’s largest actuarial employers, 10 key employers in India, and others across the globe through a series of roundtables, senior engagement sessions, and one-to-one meetings. We took the opportunity at GIRO and Life Conference to bring together 22 senior leaders and IFoA President Kalpana Shah to discuss the future of the profession, provide feedback, and discuss concerns and opportunities. All this work ensures we continue to develop our understanding of employer needs and how best to support our members.
We continued to partner with schools, universities, and employers to promote the profession. Our activities included holding talks, panel discussions, actuarial challenges, and supporting the Future Actuary Undergraduate of the Year award.
2023 also saw the launch of the IFoA DEI employer network with 26 members signed up. The new network is a central point for sharing trends, challenges, and best practice for advancing DEI in the profession. So far there have been sessions on neurodiversity, socioeconomic diversity, long term health conditions, and overcoming barriers to employment faced by disabled people.
In 2023, we also launched the employer hub. The creation of the hub was a collaborative effort between the IFoA and a variety of employers of actuaries, to make sure employers have quick and easy access to the resources they need to support their actuaries. This includes areas such as helping employers attract new talent, developing existing employees, growing their influence, and expanding their networks.
John Probert
IFoA Fellow and Partner & Chief Actuary, Mercer
The IFoA's collaborative approach to engaging with employers of actuaries has helped us to bring together our employees, maintain high standards of professionalism, and attract new people to the actuarial profession. The employer hub, networking events, roundtables and the DEI employer network have supported our aims and actuaries.
The Growth Mindset for Actuaries 2023
Helping our members build their skillset and take a forward-looking approach
Re-running due to its popularity, this practical course gave actuaries at any stage of their career the chance to develop their growth mindset. It provided them with the tools to apply it to their work setting and personal or professional lifelong learning.
As they progressed through the member-exclusive course, we encouraged participants to share their experiences in an online forum. The six sessions, run from January to March, were built on Dr Helen Wright’s lecture on growth mindset in the IFoA President’s Lecture Series in 2021.
Helena Ingram
IFoA Fellow and Director, Retirement GB, WTW
I really enjoyed participating in the Growth Mindset course in 2023. The course gave practical and relevant advice, and it was good to engage with other actuaries around how to reframe and overcome challenges. I particularly liked that the advice was useful regardless of what stage you are at in your career, and I was delighted to be involved in the 2024 version of the course.
Bradley Shearer
IFoA Fellow and Executive Director, Protagion
It's been great working with Dr Helen Wright, Helena Ingram and the IFoA on the Growth Mindset for Actuaries course and bringing it to more actuaries and students globally. I enjoyed meeting with our members virtually, sharing stories of learning, and exploring the connection between a growth mindset and reflective practice as professionals. Please do keep developing habits of learning and reflection – and let us know of other helpful resources to add to the list for future cohorts.
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A year in numbers