Selective facilitates college competition for Insurance Careers Month

Selective Insurance's fourth annual College Competition program launched in early February to celebrate Insurance Careers Month and help students explore different career opportunities in the industry. 

The competition consists of eight teams, each from different colleges throughout the country, that operate a four-week-long simulated insurance agency experience. Each school has about four to six students per team with one or two independent insurance agent mentors assigned by Selective's regional management teams, selected from their distribution partners.

Jill Rafferty, senior agency development manager at Selective, says, "We really feel that this competition is really an essential way for Selective to attract talent to the industry, as well as for our agency partners to do the same. And it really demonstrates our commitment to helping to develop that next generation of leaders for the insurance industry."

For the College Competition, Selective partnered with Prisim Business War Games, the business development company that owns and provides the business simulation software that gives college students the ability to manage a virtual insurance agency. 

Gallaudet University

Rafferty explains, "Prisim does a really great job of ensuring that they're staying current in the industry, so they make sure that any happenings in the industry [and] trends are integrated into the simulation."

Each week of the competition represents a year in the agency's operations, and teams are assessed based on their decision making and strategy execution. Teams are scored according to their overall mission, such as focusing on niche markets, generating leads for potential clients or learning financial management. 

According to Rafferty, the competition concentrates on teaching students skills that focus on business acumen such as strategic and financial planning, leadership and teamwork skills and agency operations and functions, as well as industry insights like market competition.

"A unique aspect of the simulation, too, is that, embedded in the simulation exercises, [students] also have opportunities for some self-paced learning that really complements what they're doing in the simulation. So topics such as financial statements, what drives revenue and expenses, financial ratios – they also have that ability as they make those decisions," explains Rafferty.

Selective reports that nearly three-quarters of past participants have entered the industry workforce in a variety of insurance-related roles.

"It's an opportunity for students to build relationships with our agency and mentors that could be a possible opportunity in the future for an internship for them or even a future employment opportunity," says Rafferty. "We're excited that we've had 159 students participate in our Selective competition over the four years…77% of the students who have gone through the competition and have graduated are currently working in the insurance industry, which is real evidence that they're taking those learnings and applying it to real life and really demonstrating the impact that this competition has to bring talent to the industry."