MiWay Insurance Offers Valuable Internships

May 18 - INSETA, the South African insurance industry education and training authority has linked with direct insurer, MiWay to provide more employment opportunities for newly trained people entering the industry.

MiWay will be running 20 internships and 42 learnerships this year, which will run for the whole year. Interns begin with one month of training, followed by work experience in sales, customers support and claims.

The Training Specialist at MiWay, Shabeer Bux, explained that his group made contact with INSETA to find out what happens to new learners once they complete their training.

"Most learners battle to find employment in the industry to get the necessary work experience," explained Bux. "We saw an opportunity to help reduce unemployment and contribute to the National Skills Development Strategy by giving the learners a chance to use their newly acquired knowledge in the workplace."

Bux said that many learners may be unable to find placements so soon after their training course and the internships provide them with the perfect opportunity to get hands on work experience.

"We realised that we could not only provide opportunities for them to broaden their scope, but also lead by example and show other company out there that developing and maintaining a successful learnership and internship programme is not an impossible task, and has long term benefits."

Employment from within

The biggest advantage of these types of internships is that the vast majority go on to find permanent employment with MiWay, or whichever group offers the internship or training opportunity.

Bux said that the group aims to give support to individuals who show the capability to work for many years to come in the South African insurance industry.

"Even if learners gain employment elsewhere, MiWay remains proud to have met our socio-economic responsibility as a proudly South African company," said Bux.