Oleksandr Filoniuk, president of the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, complains that the insurance business, while being actively developed here, is increasingly feeling the lack of qualified personnel. Financiers, underwriters, and insurance agents are in highest demand. To make matters worse, this market has been evolving spontaneously for a long time and now it also needs a scientific basis. This is indispensable, as insurance often provides for safe business and attracts investments, which will never come to such a high-risk country until its insurance market is sufficiently regulated.
Viktor Bazylevych, dean of the Faculty of Economics at Kyiv National University, says that insurance can be compared to the immune system; it has a chance to survive in the surrounding world only when it functions normally. Meanwhile, Ukrainian insurers face countless threats from transnational companies. If Ukraine joins the WTO, they will have unimpeded access to the domestic market, and Ukrainian insurance companies are not ready to compete with them. Add to this new production patterns with ever new risks with which most Ukrainian insurance companies are not equipped to cope; constant pension problems that can also threaten the peaceful existence of local insurers.
The need to find new sources of capital, improve competitiveness and social responsibility toward business (Filoniuk feels sure that the Ukrainian insurance business has matured enough to cope with this) — all these requirements demand new personnel. This business requires institutional transformations and their basis must be secured by quality training, which will guarantee success for the market and for this country as a whole.
Not coincidentally, however, some experts point out that the gap between the theoretical basis of institutions of higher learning and practical requirements is widening. This explains why insurers have decided to collaborate with colleges, enlisting talented students to perform practical company work even before graduation. This will help companies obtain a qualified work force that is adapted to working conditions in Ukraine and at the same time help students to secure a future workplace while they are still studying. As Bazylevych noted, this will help young specialists master international business standards and make their companies successful- an example well worth emulating.
