Canadian P&C industry to celebrate National Education Month in February

Canada’s property & casualty industry will celebrate National Education Month in February, showcasing the education and professional development of insurance professionals across the country.

The Insurance Institute of Canada (IIC) has expanded its annual National Education Week to a month this year to accommodate the many events promoting the relevance and value of a p&c education, the IIC said in a press release on Wednesday.

“Education and professional development is fast becoming tailored to meet the changing and specialized needs of insurance professionals and their clients,” said Peter Hohman, IIC president and CEO, in the release. “Through our programs, courses, seminars, webinars and research, the Institute is keeping p&c insurance professionals well-informed about managing and insuring clients’ emerging risks.”

Digital ‘disruptors’ such as automated cars, online ridesharing and homesharing apps, the Internet of Things, peer-to-peer insurance companies and artificial intelligence all point to the need for insurance professionals to update their knowledge to stay on top of their clients’ changing needs, the IIC said. Local institutes across the country will be offering a wide variety of seminars and webinars during National Education Month. Sample topics include automated vehicles, distracted driving, insurance opportunities related to Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), construction estimates, restoring textiles after a loss and more.

“Professional development and education is also keeping pace with the increasingly digitized environment of insurance professionals,” Hohman added. “The Institute is delivering its education electronically in many different ways in our designation and certificate programs.”

The institute offers facilitated online learning in its Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional designation program, Advanced Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) and Risk Management certificate programs, as well as in select CIP courses. Most recently, it has introduced online continuing education (CE) for brokers, called CE OnDemand and computer-based exams.