A Day in the Life of an Ascend Apprentice

All of our apprentices here at Ascend receive comprehensive on-the-job training as part of the Ascend Academy. They gain full insight into the entire insurance market and a thorough grounding in the various skills involved in running a brokerage and serving our clients with excellence. Each apprentice receives an overview of sales, broking and claims, before being placed into a particular department after a couple of weeks, where they will continue to learn how the various departments interact and serve each other.

In an apprentice’s first month we cover:

• What clients need
• Why service is key
• An overview of the market and consolidation
• Opportunities
• Marketing (social media)
• Marketing (appointment setting)
• Marketing (website development)
• Marketing (newsletter design)
• Networking events
• Cold calling
• Development of a CRM system
• Use of AI and other technology
• Why clients buy insurance
• The relationship between client-brokers-insurers
• How brokers find, and market to, prospective clients

An example induction week:

Department heads take it in turns to lead morning training sessions for our apprentices, with real world work in the afternoon. A typical day might be a morning of learning webinars, sales projects or meetings, or sales data mining, with the afternoon spent on department work in claims, sales support, accounts, broking or making appointments.

Here’s one of our current apprentices, Ethan, describing a typical day:

“My mornings are spent completing project work. This work varies from website development and blog/social media posting to designing claims materials (e.g. claims forms) and Ascend apps development. In the afternoon, my time is spent on my claims work which can involve setting up new claims, reviewing files and accident footage, managing the expectations of a client by updating them on their claim progress and completing claims listings/closure lists.”

 

How we provide feedback to our apprentices

• We provide weekly 1:1 feedback to all apprentices
• We offer monthly staff feedback and training reviews
• We have a dedicated HR/training manager

 

Ascend provides all apprentices with a varied training programme and day-to-day workload, giving them a finely tuned introduction to the business and a dynamic learning experience, whilst fostering their initiative in developing their particular skillsets – equipping them for a rewarding career ahead.

Read more blogs from Ascend:

The power of insurance apprenticeships and what they mean to Ascend

Testimonials from our apprentices