Lloyd's of London Apprentice Review

The first month of the apprenticeship was spent in Lloyd's itself, learning about the insurance market, as well as developing soft skills such as teamwork, communication and presentation skills. I then spent sixth months at JLT, a broker, where I moved departments: Casualty, Cargo, Property and Energy. This movement had upsides and downsides; whilst I got to experience a lot of insurace divisions and meet a lot of people, I was also sometimes left with no work to do, which became tedious. In April I moved to an eleven month Catastrophe modelling and analysis placement at Barbican Insurance Underwriters. Here I have a proper role and specific workflow, so I am never without work. My day to day role involves helping underwrites assess the degree of risk on the contracts they are writing. I do this by modelling location details and then analysing the results - trying to assess the likelihood of an earthquake, storm or other peril causing the company a loss.

I have learnt and developed a lot of new skills, especially excel and data processing. But I also feel a lot more confident in giving presentations and interacting with others, particularly those more senior than myself.

Although I currently work in an office and don't often get to go into Lloyd's, I still love working in the City, and spending time with the other apprentices and employees.

Naturally I felt more valued at the start of the programme, when we were in Lloyd's all the time, but because there are so few apprentices I still feel valued now. I think I feel more valued than I would have at university.

Quite well organised; I enjoyed the month induction, but think the fact that the apprenticeship is being shortened to a year is beneficial.

Lots of support - I can text or email her at any time and meet up once a month.

A satisfactory amount.

If I were still living at home the salary would be fine, however I had to move to London by myself, as my family live in Middlesbrough. Renting and commuting in London on the Lloyd's Apprentice salary is very difficult, however I do think it is a good starting salary.

The insurance market is very sociable and there are a lot of events outside of work.

Yes

It is a very exciting place to work. I love actually being inside the LLoyd's community and inside the square mile. I think Lloyd's can give you a diverse and interesting career.

Research the insurance market and make sure you can justify why you want a career in it; the Lloyd's insurance market is far more exciting and complex than what I initially assumed was involved with insurance, an area I previously thought was rather dull.