May 27, 2024
Stephanie Iacono—Broker Education Rep, SGI CANADA
Whether you’re seasoned, new or in that mid sweet spot in your career, we can all relate to the challenge of navigating an increasingly fast-pasted, ever-changing industry. To find success as professionals and, most importantly, for our customers, the best approach is continued learning.
Think of your life so far, before your journey as a broker was even a seed of thought in your mind. We’ve been on a constant journey of learning from the early stages of childhood. When we were younger, many of us were guided through formal education systems. As we left school and progressed through the professional world, fostering our learning became our own responsibility. Considering the context of our busy workdays, it’s no surprise that professional development can be put aside for tomorrow, or the next day until it’s almost forgotten.
Yet learning, development and training have become even more important as companies embrace new systems and technologies — tools that are, themselves, constantly improving and evolving. In response, many insurance companies are embracing the practices of adult education to develop and upskill their people.
Brokers can find support through continued education. At the frontlines of insurance, brokers are in a challenging position, needing to understand the evolving needs of customers and the ever-updating products and systems used to service those clients. Continuous education is the essential link that connects and holds brokers to their high service levels and business success in an evolving environment.
Rooted in a broker distribution business model, we care about the changing needs of our broker partners. Our dedicated team of Broker Education Representatives in each region we operate in make learning and development easy and accessible by providing education directly to our partners. There’s something for every insurance professional—we offer programs like SGI CANADA University, SGI CANADA Broker Academies and our annual broker convention. Programs are available throughout the year featuring technical training on our lines of business, soft skills development and customer experience strategies. We bring brokers together in our in-classroom instructor-led sessions and offer more flexible, self-paced online courses.
Because we know that professional development is an individual journey, it’s important to find the developmental path that works for you. It’s proof we can learn and gain new skills even when we thought it wasn’t possible to fit in our busier-than-ever schedules.