Asia Pacific College Chairman Ramon Dimacali raises the plaque of the new BS in Business Administration major in Risk and Insurance management course during its launch recently. With him are other officials of APC, the Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific (IIAP), and the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA).
Filipino students can now study insurance as a college course and become professional risk and insurance managers once they graduate.
The Asia Pacific College (APC) and the Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific (IIAP)joined hands to develop the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Risk and Insurance Management (BSBA-RIM) as a four-year course.
Ramon Dimacali, who serves as concurrent chairman of APC and president of IIAP, said the APC-IIAP college course is the first of its kind in the country. It has been approved by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and will be available beginning June this year.
"This is a very important milestone in insurance education in the country," said Dimacali who is also President and CEO of FPG Insurance.
"We are fortunate in APC to have this. Our students are what the insurance industry needs because they think differently. They are trained to become disruptors and think out of the box," he added.
The new course features 15 insurance related subjects ranging from Basic Life, Basic Non-Life, Suretyship, Claims Management, and other important aspects of the insurance business.
"By taking these subjects, graduates of the new course will hit the ground running when they enter insurance companies. They can even serve as professional risk managers in other corporations, not necessarily involved in insurance," he said.
The APC is a school of SM Foundation and IBM Philippines, established in 1991 to train IT professionals and managers to support the rapid deployment of technology solutions.
It has been awarded by CHED as Center of Excellence for IT Education and Center of Development for Computer Engineering. It is also a partner of Microsoft Academy and Carnegie Mellon University Australia.
The IIAP, meanwhile, is the only school for insurance professionals in the country. It offers specialized courses that cater to all lines of insurance. IIAP Executive Director Januario Aliwalas said the insurance industry is badly in need of new talents to fill its growing needs. "We tried to recruit new college graduates into a scholarship program to fast track their entry into insurance. But we can only graduate so much to fill the increasing skills and talent gaps. Now we will try to embed insurance knowledge in relevant degree course through our partnership with APC," he said.